22  THE  BETTER  CITY 

where  it  has  the  power  to  transform  the  desert 
into  a  garden,  who  can  picture  the  beauty  and 
greatness  of  the  future  City  of  the  Angels, 
when  this  gigantic  scheme  becomes  an  accom- 
plished fact? 

The  first  city  in  the  Union  to  light  its  streets 
entirely  with  electricity,  Los  Angeles  is  now 
one  of  the  best  lighted  cities  in  all  the  land. 
To  one  standing  on  the  surrounding  mountain 
tops,  the  city  presents  a  brilliant  appearance 
with  numerous  high  masts  carrying  groups  of 
lights,  and  with  the  many  thousand  electric 
globes  marking  the  streets  in  every  direction. 
With  several  of  the  principal  streets  lighted  by 
clusters  of  lights  on  ornamental  iron  electro- 
liers, the  city  seems  as  though  prepared  for  a 
perpetual  fiesta. 

It  is  easy  to  become  enthused  as  to  the  pos- 
sible greatness  of  a  growing  city.  While  the 
aim  of  this  book  is  ethical  rather  than  histori- 
cal, the  author  describes  the  Greater  Los  An- 
geles with  the  hope  that  there  may  be  awak- 
ened an  equal  enthusiasm  regarding  the  Better 
Los  Angeles.  Long  years  ago  this  city  out- 
grew the  cactus-hedged  boundaries  of  the  old 
pueblo,  and  now  the  cry  is  for  a  city  from  the 
mountains  to  the  sea.  Even  at  the  present  this 
is  more  than  a  dream,  for  beginning  at  Alta- 
dena  in  the  foothills,  there  is  hardly  a  break  as 
the  traveler  descends  by  trolley  through  Pasa- 
dena— the  Queen  of  the  Valley — South  Pasa- 
dena, Garvanza,  Highland  Park,  and  on  through 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  ANGELS  23 

the  city  itself,  toward  Long  Beach.  In  the 
seaward  direction,  the  workingmen  own  thou- 
sands of  homes.  Compton  almost  touches  the 
last  tract  laid  out  by  the  Long  Beach  promo- 
ter. Going  toward  the  west,  Hollywood, 
Sherman  and  the  Soldiers'  Home  almost  reach 
that  wonderful  line  of  beach  resorts  extending 
from  Playa  del  Rey  to  Santa  Monica.  In  view 
of  this  wonderful  development,  the  city  has 
already  appointed  a  committee  which  has  re- 
ported favorably  on  a  plan  for  the  consolida- 
tion of  city  and  county,  by  constituting  nine 
boroughs,  reaching  from  San  Fernando  to  San 
Pedro,  and  from  San  Gabriel  to  the  ocean  front. 
At  a  recent  election,  a  narrow  strip  of  land 
reaching  from  the  city  limits  to  Wilmington 
and  San  Pedro  was  annexed,  thus  making  it 
possible  to  reach  tide  water  where  Los  An- 
geles can  own  its  own  harbor. 

At  present  there  are  about  780  miles  of 
streets;  and  there  are  plans  on  foot  for  the 
building  of  a  poppy-lined  boulevard  from 
Pasadena  to  the  city,  continuing  it  to  Long 
Beach  in  the  Pacific  Boulevard,  and  toward 
the  western  sea  by  an  extension  of  the  Sunset 
Boulevard  along  the  foothill  section  of  the 
Cahuenga  Valley.  A  kite-shaped  boulevard  is 
projected  toward  the  east,  touching  all  the 
towns  in  both  directions  to  Redlands  and 
Riverside.  In  view  of  all  this,  together  with 
the  development  of  the  rapid  transit  system — a 
system  already  far  ahead  of  other  cities,  it  is 


SAN    GABRIEL— THE    MOTHER    MISSION 


THE    BETTER    CITY 

A  SOCIOLOGICAL  STUDY  OF 
A  MODERN  CITY 


BY 


DANA  W.  BARTLETT 

Superintendent  of  the  Bethlehem  Institutions 
Los  Angeles,  California 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS 


LOS  ANGELES 

Cfje  leaner  Conqmnp  f^re** 

1907 


COPYRIGHT.  1907 
BY  DANA  W.   BARTLETT 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


TO  MY  WIFE 
MY  HELPMEET  THROUGH  MANY  YEARS 

OF  SOCIAL  SERVICE 
I  DEDICATE  THIS  BOOK 


PREFACE 

In  the  following  pages  a  study  has  been 
made  of  a  particular  city — the  one  which  the 
writer  knows  best — in  whose  welfare  his  life 
is  bound  up.  While  discussing  the  problems 
of  this  city,  he  has  had  a  consciousness  that 
he  was  discussing  the  problems  of  city  life  in 
general.  For  while  every  city  has  its  own 
peculiar  problems,  city  life  in  all  its  essential 
features  is  everywhere  the  same.  The  average 
modern  city  expresses  its  highest  ideals  in 
terms  of  greatness :  Greater  New  York, 
Greater  Los  Angeles.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this 
book  to  concentrate  thought  upon  the  ethical 
ideal — believing  that  a  city  may  become  as 
noted  for  its  righteousness,  its  morality,  its 
social  virtues,  its  artistic  life,  as  for  its  ma- 
terial resources.  A  better  city  means  a  better 
country.  May  we  each  have  a  part  in  the 
building  of  The  Better  City. 

DANA  W.  BARTLETT. 
Los  Angeles,  Cal., 
Sept.  1,  1907. 


166704 


Table  of  Contents 

CHAP.  PAGB 

I.  THE  CITY  OF  OUR  LADY  OF  THE  ANGELS 

II.  THE  CITY  BEAUTIFUL       .... 

III.  Civic  BETTERMENT       ....  5}./' 

IV.  SOCIAL  CENTERS ?6/ 

V.  WOMAN'S  WORK 94 

VI.  THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST          .        .        .  110 

VII.  POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE        .       .       .  131 

VIII.  SEEKING  HEALTH 146     < 

IX.  THE  NON-PARTISAN       ....  46^' 

X.  INDUSTRIAL  LIFE 186 

XI.  ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED       .  211 

XII.  THE  OTHER  FELLOW  231 


List  of  Illustrations 

OPPOSITE 
PAGE 

SAN  GABRIEL — THE  MOTHER  MISSION       Frontispiece 

THE  PLAZA  CHURCH — IGLESIA  DE  Los  ANGELES  13 
THE  CHINESE  AND  THEIR  DRAGON  IN  FIESTA 

PARADE 17 

IN  THE  OLD  PUEBLO  DAYS           ....  21 

THE  PLAZA .        .  29 

IN  THE  MOTHER  MOUNTAINS        ....  37 

IN  A  Los  ANGELES  PARK 45 

A  TYPICAL  Los  ANGELES  STREET     ...  53 

TYPICAL  Los  ANGELES  WORKING  MAN'S  HOME  61 

THE  BETHLEHEM  BATHS 69 

OUR  RUSSIAN  NEIGHBORS  FROM    THE    TRANS- 
CAUCASUS       .        .        .        .        .        .        .  77 

THE  SETTLEMENT  HOUSE     .        .               .       .  85 

THE  WOMAN'S  CLUB  HOUSE        ....  93 

THE  EBELL  CLUB  HOUSE          ....  101 

"ELNIDO,"  THE  HOME  OF  MADAME  SEVERANCE  109 
THE  CATHOLIC  ORPHANS'  ASYLUM     .        .        .117 

Los  ANGELES  ORPHANS'  HOME           .        .        .  125 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  NEW  BUILDING       .        .        .        .132 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  NEW  BUILDING           .        .        ...  140 

THE  CHILDREN'S  HOSPITAL         ....  148 

BARLOW  TUBERCULOSIS  SANATORIUM         .        .  157 

A  HILL-TOP  HOTEL 165 

THE  POLYTECHNIC  HIGH  SCHOOL,  Los  ANGELES  173 

OLD  SPANISH  OLIVE  MILL 181 

PACKING  ORANGES — A  CALIFORNIA  INDUSTRY  189 
HOLLENBECK  HOME  FOR  THE  AGED  .  .  197 
JAPANESE,  RUSSIAN  AND  CHINESE  CHILDREN  .  204 
REPRESENTING  ORGANIZED  RELIGION  .  .  212 
MCKINLEY  INDUSTRIAL  HOME  FOR  BOYS  .  .  221 
MOTHER  HOUSE  OF  THE  BETHLEHEM  INSTI- 
TUTIONS    229 

Los  ANGELES  COUNTY  POOR  FARM    .        .        .  236 

"PUT  OUT  THE  LIFE  LINE"  244 


THE  BETTER  CITY 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  CITY  OF  OUR  LADY  OF  THE  ANGELS 

A  great  city  is  forming  by  the  shore  of  the 
sunset  sea.  Great  and  still  greater  will  it  be- 
come as  the  years  go  by,  until  it  stretches  it- 
self from  the  Sierra  Madre  Mountains  to  the 
Pacific.  Unlike  most  Western  cities,  this  City 
of  Heart's  Desire  has  been  slow  in  building. 
Five  years  before  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence had  been  signed,  when  the  great  West 
still  lay  in  primeval  forest  and  its  far-reaching 
plains  were  trackless  and  desolate,  save  where 
over  them  the  Indians  and  wild  animals 
roamed  unmolested,  away  out  by  the  Western 
waters,  the  Spanish  padres  began  the  planting 
of  that  wonderful  line  of  missions  along  the 
Camino  Real,  or  King's  Highway.  Then  fol- 
lowed intrepid  explorers  whose  purpose  was  to 
establish  the  Catholic  faith,  to  extend  the 
Spanish  domain,  and  to  check  the  ambitious 
schemes  of  foreign  nations.  In  order  to  hold 
the  country  and  give  protection  to  the  mis- 
sions, presidios  were  established  and  filled  with 
troops.  But  these  troops  must  needs  be  sup- 
ported, so  agricultural  colonies  were  brought 


12  THE  BETTER  CITY 

from  Mexico.  One  of  these  companies  of 
Spanish  colonists  arrived  at  the  San  Gabriel 
Mission  in  1771.  The  Governor  had  already 
decided  to  settle  this  little  band  on  the  rich 
lands  along  the  Rio  Porciuncula,  now  recog- 
nized as  the  usually  dry  bed  of  the  Los  An- 
geles River. 

The  actual  dedication  of  this  now  historic 
site  took  place  on  September  4th  of  that  year. 
On  that  morning,  mass  was  celebrated  at  the 
mission,  and  the  little  procession  took  up  its 
line  of  march  for  the  site  which  had  been 
chosen  for  the  plaza  of  the  new  town.  There 
was  a  parade  three  times  around  it,  led  by  the 
Governor  and  the  friars,  an  escort  of  soldiers, 
acolytes  carrying  the  cross  and  the  candles, 
and  a  woman  with  a  banner  on  which  was  a 
picture  of  "Our  Lady  of  the  Angels,"  followed 
by  the  women,  children  and  the  Indians.  This 
ceremony  concluded,  there  was  an  address  by 
the  Governor,  after  which  were  volleys  of  mus- 
ketry and  the  booming  of  a  small  cannon  which 
now  reposes  as  a  curious  relic  of  the  past  in 
a  museum.  According  to  the  custom  of  these 
pious  Spaniards,  they  christened  their  new- 
born town  with  a  religious  name — "El  Pueblo 
de  Nuestra  Sefiora  Reina  de  Los  Angeles," 
"The  City  of  Our  Lady,  Queen  of  the  Angels," 
which  succeeding  generations  with  less  time 
on  their  hands  have  shortened  to  "Los  An- 
geles." 

No  sooner  had  the  plaza,  the  social  center, 


^7^ 
(i  VA 


°FT,-; 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  ANGELS  13 

been  laid  out,  than  they  builded  hard  by,  the 
Iglesia  de  Los  Angeles,  and  in  these  days  of 
Eastern  tourists,  from  a  slightly  different  loca- 
tion, the  bells  still  ring  from  the  church  tower 
as  in  the  days  when  the  senors,  with  their 
broad  sombreros,  walked  with  the  black-eyed 
senoritas  to  the  morning  mass.  But  the  plaza 
of  today,  near  by  the  old  site,  where  once  cen- 
tered all  the  social  life  of  the  pueblo,  and  where 
the  music  of  the  guitar  accompanied  the  joyous 
song,  is  now  but  a  well-kept  park  where  lounge 
the  out-of-works  and  those  awaiting  employ- 
ment. 

The  quiet,  restful  pastoral  life  of  the  past 
furnished  none  of  the  vexed  problems  of  the 
modern  city  life.  The  total  population  in  1790 
consisted  of  only  141 — a  mixed  class,  composed 
of  one  European,  seventy-two  Spanish-Ameri- 
cans, seven  Indians,  twenty-two  mulattos  and 
thirty-nine  mestizos.  The  large  ranches  were 
covered  with  cattle.  The  fathers  in  the  mis- 
sions were  teaching  their  Indians  the  gospel  of 
the  Prince  of  Peace,  and  at  the  same  time 
training  them  in  the  cultivation  of  the  olive 
and  the  vine.  Thus  the  years  went  by  without 
any  striking  event  to  mark  their  passage.  The 
rush  for  gold  in  '49  brought  the  first  fore- 
runners of  those  who  were  finally  to  possess 
the  land,  but  most  of  them  were  but  birds  of 
passage  on  their  way  to  the  north.  The  first 
great  rush  to  the  Land  of  Sunshine  occurred 
in  1885,  when  in  the  Cajon  Pass  the  golden 
2 


14  THE  BETTER  CITY 

/  spike  was  driven  which  marked  the  completion 
/  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad,  joining 
\  two  great  oceans.  Following  this  came  the 
great  and  only  real  estate  boom,  which  made 
fortunes  for  the  few  and  wrought  ruin  for  the 
many.  But  after  the  dark  night  had  passed, 
the  citizens  awakened  with  the  determination 
to  build  here  a  metropolitan  city,  not  only 
great,  but  fair  and  good.  "Watch  us  grow" 
is  the  legend  emblazoned  today  over  store  and 
along  trolley  lines,  which  extend  far  out  into 
the  country.  Growing,  yet  it  is  conscious  of 
its  growing  pains. 

The  beginnings  of  much  that  is  to  make  this 
the  better  city  that  is  to  be,  can  be  traced  back 
to  the  padres,  who  wrought  better  than  they 
knew  as  they  introduced  the  mission  type  of 
architecture,  so  well  adapted  to  this  Southland. 
The  mission  grape,  the  olive,  together  with 
many  flowers  and  vines  and  trees  from  other 
lands,  which  now  beautify  our  city  are  con- 
stant reminders  of  those  who  planted  them  a 
century  ago  about  the  church,  the  Campo 
Santo,  and  in  the  acres  about  the  sheep-fold. 
Unlike  the  frontier  town,  or  mine-built  city, 
this  City  of  the  Angels  had  as  its  foundation 
the  Church,  and  later  on,  the  school.  These 
persist  today  in  many  noble  institutions  making 
constantly  for  the  better  life.  The  religious 
ideals  of  the  first  missionaries  have  passed  on 
even  into  the  nobler  and  truer  altruistic  aspira- 
tions of  the  present  day.  The  power  of  these 


THE  Ctf  Y  OF  THE  ANGELS  1$ 

ideals  is  still  felt  even  though  the  rush  for  the 
dollar  may  seem  for  a  time  to  engross  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  many  citizens.  Those  early  dwell- 
ers in  the  patios  taught  a  lesson  in  hospitality 
which  their  successors  have  constantly  put  in 
practice.  The  early  traveler  on  the  King's 
Highway  knew  when  he  saw  the  white  towers 
of  the  mission  or  the  tile-covered  adobe  on  the 
great  rancho,  that  there  a  cordial  welcome 
awaited  both  man  and  beast,  and  that  after 
refreshment  that  cost  him  nothing,  a  guide  and 
a  fresh  horse  might  be  his  until  he  reached  the 
next  stopping  place,  miles  beyond.  Is  it  any 
wonder,  then,  that  this  and  other  fair  sister 
cities  of  the  South  should  be  noted  as  the 
world's  best  entertainers?  While  today  there 
are  some  who  are  seeking  only  to  obtain  the 
traveler's  dollars,  the  best  among  us  are  com- 
bining the  old  hospitality  with  the  ability  of 
the  modern  Captain  of  Industry,  and  their 
minds  are  rilled  with  commercial,  educational 
and  philanthropic  schemes  of  largest  import. 
It  matters  not  how  large  this  city  may  grow, 
it  will  never  be  allowed  to  forget  the  past,  for 
in  every  annual  Fiesta  de  las  Flores  the  early 
days  are  again  recalled.  The  brilliant  ca- 
balleros  on  prancing  horses  tell  of  the  pleas- 
ures of  old  when  the  Spaniard  in  high-peaked 
sombreros,  and  covered  with  silver  spangles, 
rode  in  the  race,  or  fought  "el  toro"  in  the 
ring.  We  are  reminded  of  the  past,  too,  as 
we  see  riding  by,  the  smiling  senoritas,  native 


16  THE  BETTER  CITY 

daughters  of  the  golden  West,  and  know  that 
it  was  such  as  these  that  made  this  the  land 
of  poetry  and  romance.  The  cowboys  riding 
on  their  ponies  tell  of  the  days  when  the 
ranchos  were  reckoned  by  leagues  and  not  by 
acres,  and  the  multitudes  of  cattle  were  raised 
for  their  hides  rather  than  for  their  meat. 
This  celebration  is  emphatically  a  Fiesta  de  las 
Flores,  a  feast  of  flowers.  A  multitude  of  the 
rarest  blossoms  entwine  horse  and  carriage 
and  rider  in  such  profusion  that  the  florists  of 
many  Eastern  cities  would  become  bankrupt  if 
forced  to  supply  them.  At  night  there  is  the 
brilliant  illumination  of  float  and  design,  grow- 
ing more  and  more  beautiful  as  the  years  go 
by,  but  this  feature  of  our  modern  electric  age 
is  one  in  which  other  cities  can  do  as  well. 
None  other,  however,  can  have  the  same  back- 
ground of  natural  beauty ;  none  other  can  have 
the  drooping  peppers,  the  tall  eucalyptus,  the 
over-circling  palms,  the  never-ceasing  bloom  of 
flowers,  the  mid-winter  roses,  tree-tall,  and 
throwing  forth  their  fragrance  from  ever-open- 
ing blossom,  nor  the  golden  poppy,  dear  to  the 
heart  of  every  Californian,  which  although 
much  depleted  by  the  hand  of  the  agricultural- 
ist, still  makes  our  many  fields  one  great  mass 
of  yellow  bloom. 

A  century  ago,  this  was  the  Land  of  Mariana. 
Today  it  is  the  city  of  the  strenuous  life.  Yet 
today  no  one  is  so  busy  in  any  department  of 
work  that  he  does  not  find  some  time  to  live 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  ANGELS  17 

out  of  doors,  either  by  the  sea,  or  in  the  heart 
of  the  mountains.  This  book  is  being  written 
in  a  holy  sanctuary,  high  up  in  the  mother 
mountains,  under  a  spreading  sycamore  tree, 
with  the  maple,  the  oak  and  the  spruce  as  its 
companions.  The  walls  of  this  nature's  sanct- 
uary are  lined  with  ferns  and  moss  and  beau- 
tiful flowers.  The  squirrels  and  the  birds  in 
the  bush  are  of  more  value  than  their  caged 
fellows  in  the  city  park.  The  babbling  of  the 
mountain  brook  is  nature's  own  medicine  for 
tired  nerves.  Slow  of  heart,  indeed,  is  he  who 
cannot  recognize  the  imminent  God  in  the  life 
and  voices  around  him.  It  is  because  of  the 
ideals  of  the  padres  which  stir  the  newer  social 
thought  of  this  industrial  age  that  the  writer 
longs  for  the  time  to  come  when  the  workers 
in  the  mill  and  the  toilers  in  the  factories  may 
in  increasing  numbers  have  the  yearly  oppor- 
tunity of  entering  the  silences  of  the  mountains 
and  there  hear  the  still  small  voice  that  cannot 
be  heard  in  the  noise  and  rush  of  modern 
commercialism.  Sooner  here  than  anywhere 
else  in  the  wide  world  will  this  dream  be  real- 
ized, for  here  all  nature  calls  us  to  come  out 
into  the  open  and  breathe  the  free  air  of 
heaven. 

With  this  fair  land  for  its  setting,  the  City 
Beautiful  of  which  we  are  to  speak  is  to  be 
built  up.  The  story  of  its  gradual  enlargement 
must  be  told  at  length  in  another  chapter.  We 
shall  now  seek  to  indicate  some  of  the  reasons 


18  THE  BETTER  CITY 

why  we  expect  this  to  be  a  greater  and  a  better 
city. 

In  the  ^firstplace,  there  is  the  asset  of -die. 
mate,  and  there  is  no  climate  on  earth  equal  to 
"fnTsVfor  it  is  enjoyable  and  health -giving  the 
year  around.  When  elsewhere  men  are  suffer- 
ing from  the  heat,  in  this  favored  clime  the 
least  shade  is  always  cooling  and  blankets  are 
necessary  for  comfort  at  night.  When  in  the 
North  and  East  the  mercury  goes  down  below 
zero,  and  the  rivers  are  frozen  over  and  the 
land  is  covered  with  snow,  in  this  city  men 
sleep  with  open  windows,  or  live  comfortably 
either  in  a  tent  house  or  out  of  doors,  save  in 
the  rainy  season.  Here  homes  are  built  with 
reference  to  the  climate,  with  large  porches 
used  as  living  rooms,  with  open-air  bedrooms, 
with  patios  rilled  with  blossom  and  rare  plants 
— the  joy  of  every  season.  Within  a  few  miles 
of  this  city  are  to  be  found  the  beaches  that 
furnish  a  climate  cool  in  summer  and  wonder- 
fully pleasant  in  winter.  The  mountains  are 
near  by,  always  enticing  and  invigorating,  and 
in  the  winter  furnish  the  touch  of  snow  for 
"ihose  who  desire  the  chill,  so  that  they  may 
experience  again  the  crisp  air  of  their  old  home 
winter.  Thousands  of  children  and  youths  in 
this  city  have  never  seen  snow  nearer  than  the 
distant  mountain  tops,  and  yet  this  is  not  an 
ennervating  climate.  It  is  unlike  the  tropics, 
where  because  of  the  excessive  moisture  and 
heat,  men  are  content  to  sit  down  under  the 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  ANGELS  19 

bread-fruit  tree  and  live  without  much  labor. 
Here  with  the  air  charged  with  electricity  and 
ozone,  there  is  a  bracing  quality  that  makes  the 
sick  well  and  the  strong  capable  of  doing  hard 
work  without  great  exhaustion. 

Climate  has  a  cash  value.  It  is  the  climate 
that  brings  hither  three-fourths  of  the  tourists, 
and  leads  the  majority  to  stay  after  they  have 
spent  a  winter  where  none  of  the  rigors  of 
winter  weather  are  experienced.  This  is  a  na- 
tional playground.  The  rich  from  all  over  the 
world  are  coming  hither  on  pleasure  bent. 
Nearly  every  day  is  a  fine  day,  and  life  may  be 
one  round  of  joy.  Hither  comes  not  only  the 
invalid,  but  the  man  of  business  that  he  may 
find  the  quiet  and  peaceful  closing  of  a  happy 
life.  A  recent  writer,  enthusiastic,  yet  keeping 
well  within  bounds,  says :  "Here  is  the  climate 
of  the  tropics  without  its  perils;  here  is  the 
fertility  of  Egypt  without  its  fellaheen ;  here 
are  the  fruits  and  flowers  of  Sicily  without  its 
lazzaroni ;  here  the  beauty  of  Italy  without  its 
limited  market ;  the  sunshine  of  Persia  without 
its  oppressions.  For  this  is  America,  with  its 
unfettered  freedom  and  unfettered  energy." 

But  to  none  has  the  climate  such  a  cash 
value  as  to  the  working  man.  No  days  lost  be- 
cause of  the  storm  or  cold;  no  using  up  in 
winter  of  that  which  has  been  saved  in  sum- 
mer ;  no  suffering  from  lack  of  coal  or  clothing. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  is  able  to  possess  a  home 
of  his  own,  and  though  its  walls  may  be  only 


20  THE  BETTER  CITY 

the  thickness  of  a  single  board,  yet  covered 
with  flowers  and  vines,  it  equals  in  comfort 
an  Eastern  palace.  In  this  clime  the  rancher 
sees  many  of  his  crops  grow  continuously,  and 
is  able  to  reap  in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer. 
In  such  a  climate  the  struggle  for  existence 
will  always  be  modified,  and  can  never  under 
the  worst  conditions  be  like  that  of  other  cities. 

This  climate  has  its  sociological  bearing  on 
the  housing  problem — for  here  the  tendency  is 
to  open  and  not  to  crowded  quarters ;  on  mor- 
ality, for  those  who  cultivate  a  taste  for  natural 
pleasures  are  not  tempted  to  the  grosser  sins. 
Here  even  the  pauper  lives  in  surroundings  fit 
for  a  king.  It  has  its  bearing  on  health.  Every 
sensible  doctor  will  recommend  the  "open-air 
cure"  as  the  most  effectual  remedy  for  nearly 
every  disease.  And  here  there  are  more  perfect 
days  during  the  year  for  out-of-door  life,  than 
are  to  be  found  anywhere  else.  Plenty  of  fresh 
air  with  absence  of  worry,  peace  of  mind  and 
some  definite  object  in  life  will  surely  bring 
health  to  any  of  God's  creatures. 

Another  reason  why  Los  Angeles  is  to  be 
not  only  a  greater  but  a  better  city,  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  it  is  largely  an  American  city. 
The  majority  of  its  citizens  are  of  American 
birth ;  and  its  foreign-born  citizen,  catching 
the  American  spirit,  vies  with  his  neighbor  in 
his  devotion  to  high  ideals.  The  people  of 
culture  have  come  from  every  point  of  the 
compass  to  make  up  the  present  city  of  nearly 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  ANGELS  21 

300.000  and  to  join  with  the  old  settlers  in 
planning  for  a  greater  city  with  a  million 
happy  citizens.  The  amalgamation  of  races  is 
producing  a  new  and  splendid  type.  Here  is 
a  people  within  whose  veins  runs  the  red  blood 
of  the  hardy  Northmen.  They  are  possessed 
of  the  push  and  the  stir  of  the  great  Eastern 
cities,  and  have  also  the  romantic  and  poetic 
temperament  of  the  Spanish  life  in  which  they 
share,  together  with  the  love  of  nature  and  of  • 
the  beautiful  that  characterized  the  early  set- 
tlers. The  out-of-door  life,  the  mission  re- 
deuce,  the  bungalow,  are  but  the  outward 
expression  of  the  inner  thought.  Here  as  in  no 
other  city,  you  can  hear  the  song  of  the  siren 
mingled  with  the  music  of  mission  bells. 

The  greatness,  at  least  of  the  City  of  the 
Angels  can  be  prophesied  because  its  commer- 
prospects  are   '  than  ever  before. 

With  three  great  transcontinental  lines  and 
the  i  of  the  fourth,  with  a  harbor  in  the 

making  that  will  cost  the  Government  about 
$4,000.000.  ui:h  mighty  steamships  carry- 
ing the  product  of  a  thousand  factories  to  the 

••.ing  millions  of  the  Orient,  what  can  stop 
this  c  m  becoming  one  of  the  great  com-  . 

mercial  centers  of  the  earth?     This  city  has 

•i  the  hie      S       as  that 

will  make  it  possible  to  bring  from  the  Owens 
River  in  a  conduit  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 

; .  w  a  t  e  r  s  u  ffi  c  i  e  n  t  to  I  vo  millic 

In  a  land  where  water  means  so  much  and 


22  THE  BETTER  CITY 

where  it  has  the  power  to  transform  the  desert 
into  a  garden,  who  can  picture  the  beauty  and 
greatness  of  the  future  City  of  the  Angels, 
when  this  gigantic  scheme  becomes  an  accom- 
plished fact? 

The  first  city  in  the  Union  to  light  its  streets 
entirely  with  electricity,  Los  Angeles  is  now 
one  of  the  best  lighted  cities  in  all  the  land. 
To  one  standing  on  the  surrounding  mountain 
tops,  the  city  presents  a  brilliant  appearance 
with  numerous  high  masts  carrying  groups  of 
lights,  and  with  the  many  thousand  electric 
globes  marking  the  streets  in  every  direction. 
With  several  of  the  principal  streets  lighted  by 
clusters  of  lights  on  ornamental  iron  electro- 
liers, the  city  seems  as  though  prepared  for  a 
perpetual  fiesta. 

It  is  easy  to  become  enthused  as  to  the  pos- 
sible greatness  of  a  growing  city.  While  the 
aim  of  this  book  is  ethical  rather  than  histori- 
cal, the  author  describes  the  Greater  Los  An- 
geles with  the  hope  that  there  may  be  awak- 
ened an  equal  enthusiasm  regarding  the  Better 
Los  Angeles.  Long  years  ago  this  city  out- 
grew the  cactus-hedged  boundaries  of  the  old 
pueblo,  and  now  the  cry  is  for  a  city  from  the 
mountains  to  the  sea.  Even  at  the  present  this 
is  more  than  a  dream,  for  beginning  at  Alta- 
dena  in  the  foothills,  there  is  hardly  a  break  as 
the  traveler  descends  by  trolley  through  Pasa- 
dena— the  Queen  of  the  Valley — South  Pasa- 
dena, Garvanza,  Highland  Park,  and  on  through 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  ANGELS  23 

the  city  itself,  toward  Long  Beach.  In  the 
seaward  direction,  the  workingmen  own  thou- 
sands of  homes.  Compton  almost  touches  the 
last  tract  laid  out  by  the  Long  Beach  promo- 
ter. Going  toward  the  west,  Hollywood, 
Sherman  and  the  Soldiers'  Home  almost  reach 
that  wonderful  line  of  beach  resorts  extending 
from  Playa  del  Rey  to  Santa  Monica.  In  view 
of  this  wonderful  development,  the  city  has 
already  appointed  a  committee  which  has  re- 
ported favorably  on  a  plan  for  the  consolida- 
tion of  city  and  county,  by  constituting  nine 
boroughs,  reaching  from  San  Fernando  to  San 
Pedro,  and  from  San  Gabriel  to  the  ocean  front. 
At  a  recent  election,  a  narrow  strip  of  land 
reaching  from  the  city  limits  to  Wilmington 
and  San  Pedro  was  annexed,  thus  making  it 
possible  to  reach  tide  water  where  Los  An- 
geles can  own  its  own  harbor. 

At  present  there  are  about  780  miles  of 
streets;  and  there  are  plans  on  foot  for  the 
building  of  a  poppy-lined  boulevard  from 
Pasadena  to  the  city,  continuing  it  to  Long 
Beach  in  the  Pacific  Boulevard,  and  toward 
the  western  sea  by  an  extension  of  the  Sunset 
Boulevard  along  the  foothill  section  of  the 
Cahuenga  Valley.  A  kite-shaped  boulevard  is 
projected  toward  the  east,  touching  all  the 
towns  in  both  directions  to  Redlands  and 
Riverside.  In  view  of  all  this,  together  with 
the  development  of  the  rapid  transit  system — a 
system  already  far  ahead  of  other  cities,  it  is 


24  THE  BETTER  CITY 

small  wonder  that  the  mind  becomes  some- 
what intoxicated  with  the  sense  of  evident 
destiny. 

But  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  desire 
for  mere  wealth  and  outward  greatness  has 
proved  the  ruin  of  many  a  city.  The  quest  for 
the  dollar  blinds  the  eyes  to  the  higher  civic 
ideals.  The  fact  is,  that  city  life  had  its  Dark 
Age  until  the  beginning,  but  a  few  years  ago, 
of  the  Civic  Renaissance.  Then  came  the  "ten 
years'  war"  against  the  slum,  made  necessary 
by  forty  years  of  neglect  and  lack  of  civic  self- 
sacrifice.  Graft  and  misrule  in  the  city  hall 
have  only  recently  been  met  with  high  busi- 
ness ideals,  and  the  reapplication  of  the 
phrase,  "a  public  office,  a  public  trust." 

During  the  past  fifteen  years  the  social 
workers  and  the  public  press  have  gradually 
evolved  a  new  patriotism.  The  social  con- 
science of  many  has  been  aroused,  and  a  feel- 
ing of  community  obligation  and  purpose  is 
possessing  many  who  once  lived  only  the  life 
of  selfish  commercialism.  There  has  been 
many  a  signal  victory  of  right  ideals  in  these 
last  few  years.  Frederick  Howe  in  the  Out- 
look gives  a  notable  example :  "In  a  few  years' 
time  the  Cleveland  Chamber  of  Commerce  has 
compelled  its  members  to  think  about  the  city 
in  a  city  way,  and  today  its  members  talk  not 
so  much  about  bank  clearances,  tonnage, 
freight  rates,  and  business  for  their  own  per- 
sonal profit;  they  talk  city,  street  cleaning, 


THE  CITY  OF  THE  ANGELS  25 

health  protection,  parks,  public  baths,  schools, 
model  tenements,  cheap  light,  heat,  and  trans- 
portation for  all  the  people.  The  work  is  not 
all  done  yet,  and  the  commercial  impulse  is 
keenly  alert  when  its  business  interests  are 
involved.  But  the  Chamber  has  got  its  bent, 
and  it  can  never  become  again  a  mere  temple 
of  money  makers." 

Los  Angeles  has  been  lavishly  endowed  by 
Nature  with  all  that  goes  to  make  up  a  pros- 
perous  city,  and  commercially  its  future  is  se£ 
cured.  But  greatness  is  not  necessarily  gooo- 
ness;  indeed,  it  may  be  its  greatest  foe.  Is  it 
not  then  an  opportune  time  to  lay  emphasis  on 
the  Better  City,  setting  forth  high  ideals  as 
to  private  virtue  and  honesty,  high  ideals  as 
to  industrial  and  civic  life,  so  that  the  better 
city  may  be  created  for  the  benefit  and  enjoy- 
ment of  all  the  people? 

The  writer,  after  many  years  spent  as  a  so- 
cial worker  in  this  city,  can  testify  to  the 
great  awakening  along  all  social  lines  today. 
Everywhere,  among  rich  and  poor  alike,  there 
seems  to  be  a  deep  purpose  to  make  this  city 
not  alone  greater,  but  pre-eminently  "better, 
wiser,  and  fairer." 

As  this  is  written  the  Landmarks  Club  is 
preparing  to  rehabilitate  the  old  missions, 
planted  so  long  ago  amid  privation  and  suffer- 
ing on  the  part  of  the  padres.  Before  long 
the  traveler  along  the  rebuilt  Camino  Real 
will  be  able  to  pause  under  the  arches  of  the 


26  THE  BETTER  CITY 

-    *    «*   «  .-.**.* 
mission,    while    the    brown-robed    Franciscan 

bids  him  enter ;  and  in  the  stillness  of  its  clois- 
ters he  will  be  invited  to  think  of  those  things 
that  are  eternal  and  abiding,  and  which  make 
for  the  true  greatness  of  all  human  life.  Vis- 
ions, dreams,  ideals,  they  also  have  a  part  in 
the  making  of  the  Better  City. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  CITY  BEAUTIFUL 

Ugliness  has  no  commercial  or  ethical  value. 
The  crowded  tenement,  the  rookery,  a  city's 
ill-kept  streets  and  yards  are  not  incentives  to 
higher  living.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  fact 
made  clear  by  years  of  experience  that  the 
fairer  the  city,  the  nearer  to  Nature's  heart  the 
people  are  brought;  the  more  easily  they  are 
governed;  there  is  less  crime  and  more  of 
the  normal,  spiritual,  healthful  life  which  is  the 
product  of  the  ripest  civilization. 

The  last  half  century  has  seen  a  rapid  de- 
velopment of  factory  and  commercial  life. 
Will  it  pay  large  dividends?  has  been  the  only 
question  asked  in  the  building  of  store  or  mill. 
The  busy  strenuous  life  has  left  little  time 
for  the  study  of  the  beautiful.  But  new  times 
are  upon  us.  The  artist  and  the  artisan,  the 
teacher  and  the  merchant,  the  social  dreamer 
and  the  social  worker,  each  in  his  own  way, 
has  plans  for  the  City  Beautiful.  It  is  a  sign 
of  great  promise  when  the  daily  papers,  usually 
so  filled  with  commercialism,  partisan  politics, 
and  with  the  shadier  side  of  life  are  giving  so 
much  attention  to  the  aesthetic  and  artistic 
side  of  a  city's  development.  One  of  our  city 
papers  devotes  a  page  a  week  to  this  subject, 


28  THE  BETTER  CITV 

under  a  well-trained  editor.  Every  city  paper 
prints  a  strong  succession  of  editorials  on 
beautifying  the  city,  and  these  editorials  are 
generally  untainted  with  utilitarian  ideas.  Re- 
cently a  Pasadena  editor  wrote  in  answer  to 
the  question,  "What  is  beauty?":  "It  is  the 
embodiment  of  truth  in  visible  forms,  and 
ugliness  is  the  assertion  of  a  lie.  The  love  of 
the  beautiful  is  but  the  hungry  human  nature 
feeling  after  infinite  harmony.  Everywhere 
in  literature,  in  art,  in  being,  the  beautiful  is 
the  true,  and  yet  we  pursue  the  ugly,  believing 
the  beautiful  too  costly.  We  permit  it  for  a 
few  dollars  gained  or  a  few  dollars  saved,  and 
think  how  well  it  pays.  But  sometime,  the 
right  to  banish  the  ugly,  simply  because  it  is 
the  ugly — which  is  now  denied  by  the  courts — 
will  be  recognized.  The  children  of  the  earth 
must  come  into  their  full  heritage,  and  when 
they  do,  we  shall  see  how  natural  is  beauty; 
how  near  to  simplicity;  how  much  it  consists 
simply  in  retaining  unspoiled  the  things  of 
nature  and  of  life." 

What  has  been  done  along  this  line  in  the 
past,  is  well  worthy  of  study.  Every  New 
Englander  will  recall  the  many  towns  like  New 
Haven,  where  the  century-old  elms  form 
charming  vistas  down  all  the  streets;  where 
the  Commons  furnishes  the  site  for  the 
church,  the  town  hall,  and  perhaps  for  the 
school,  thus  becoming  the  forerunner  of  the 
modern  idea  of  a  civic  center  for  the  City 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  29 

Beautiful.  The  early  days  were  days  of  high 
ideals,  but  our  land  soon  fell  on  evil  times. 
Greed,  fraud  and  incompetency  vaulted  into 
the  saddle,  the  best  men  of  the  community 
being  too  busy,  or  too  ignorant  of  existing 
conditions,  to  care  for  things  that  did  not  seem 
to  be  vital. 

But  at  last  the  iconoclast  is  abroad.  Parties 
and  institutions  are  being  battered  on  all  sides. 
Necessary  as  this  may  be,  there  is  far  more 
need  in  the  present  hour  for  men  of  positive 
thought  and  high  ideals  —  constructive  men 
who  are  able  to  do  something  worth  doing. 
Holding  to  the  thought  of  the  high  and  the 
beautiful  is  the  quickest  way  of  overthrowing 
the  false  and  the  unlovely.  The  dreamer,  the 
idealist — the  one  who  is  under  the  power  of  a 
great  ideal,  is  of  more  value  than  he  who  fights 
in  Saul's  armor.  Every  Utopia  has  its  Moore, 
or  its  Bellamy.  Inspired  by  their  vision,  the 
opportunist  begins  his  slow  work  in  the  midst 
of  the  actual  conditions  toward  the  Utopia 
which  lies  far  beyond. 

This  City  of  the  Angels  can  be  among  the 
first  to  realize  the  world's  dream  of  the  City 
Beautiful,  for  all  the  materials  are  at  hand  in 
such  an  abundance  that  everything  can  be 
easily  transformed.  The  very  outbuildings 
and  fences  run  riot  with  glorious  climbers, 
Cherokee  roses,  passion  vines  and  nasturtiums, 
and  the  porches  are  intertwined  with  yellow 
and  white  banksias.  For  the  yards  and  the 
3 


30  THE  BETTER  CITY 

streets,  there  is  a  choice  of  a  score  of  trees, 
rarely  seen  in  the  East — oranges,  magnolias, 
palms,  peppers,  camphors,  laurels,  live  oaks, 
and  the  scarlet-blooming  eucalyptus.  Trees 
are  here  from  every  clime,  as  can  easily  be  seen 
in  Chaves  Ravine  in  Elysian  Park,  where  there 
are  over  thirty  acres  of  propagated  plants  and 
vines,  seen  elsewhere  only  in  hothouses. 
Here,  with  its  wealth  of  purple  bloom,  is  the 
largest  bougainvillea  in  the  world.  Running 
along  a  trellis  for  more  than  200  feet,  this 
gigantic  creeper  has  stretched  itself  in  a  prodi- 
gality of  intertwining  tendril  and  leaf.  An 
Empress  of  China  rose  has  attained  a  growth 
of  150  feet.  The  possibilities  in  the  growth 
of  vine  arbors  are  seen  in  the  many  creeping 
plants  of  strange  variety. 

In  the  past,  through  false  ideas  of  mere 
political  office  holders,  cement  sidewalks  and 
curbs,  electric  poles  and  gridiron  streets  were 
thought  to  be  of  more  civic  value  than  the 
stately  trees  planted  by  the  early  settlers.  So 
the  woodman  used  his  ax,  and  years  were  lost 
in  the  effort  to  make  this  a  forest  city — a  place 
that  will  fulfill  the  vision  of  William  Morris, 
of  the  time  "when  art  will  make  our  streets 
as  beautiful  as  the  woods  and  as  elevating  as 
the  mountain  sides ;  when  it  will  be  a  pleasure 
and  a  rest,  and  not  a  weight  upon  the  spirit 
to  come  from  the  open  country  into  the  city." 

The  proper  planting  of  street  trees  means  so 
much  to  the  city  as  a  whole,  that  the  munici- 


THE   CITY    BEAUTIFUL  31 

pality  has  placed  the  matter  under  the  control 
of  a  Tree  Warden,  that  he  may  determine  the 
kind,  usually  planting  whole  streets  with  uni- 
formity— and  give  constant  attention  to  the 
care  and  trimming  of  trees,  in  order  that  there 
may  be  no  break  in  the  arboreal  effect.  Al- 
ready Ward  Improvement  Societies  have  un- 
dertaken the  uniform  planting  of  trees  in  their 
localities,  thereby  enhancing  the  beauty  of  the 
ward,  and  the  value  of  the  property.  The 
old  way  of  planting  gave,  here  an  acacia,  there 
a  palm,  there  a  pepper,  with  an  intervening 
treeless  lot,  losing  thereby  the  opportunity 
for  an  artistic  effect.  Real  estate  agents,  lay- 
ing out  new  subdivisions  whose  streets  are  to 
be  deeded  to  the  city,  ought  not  to  be  allowed 
to  plant  trees,  except  under  the  direction  of  the 
city  Tree  Warden. 

The  laying  out  of  the  streets  is  by  no  means 
to  be  overlooked  in  the  City  Beautiful.  Phila- 
delphia's checkerboard  plan  has  unfortunately 
been  followed  in  this  city,  and  the  hills  have 
been  cut  through  by  canons  in  order  to  extend 
the  streets,  and  they  who  live  on  the  hills  are 
modern  cliff  dwellers.  Better,  Boston  with  its 
crooked  streets,  of  which  a  humorist  was  heard 
to  say  that  in  following  a  single  street  he  often 
met  himself  coming  in  the  opposite  direction. 
Many  new  subdivisions  have,  however, 
adopted  the  more  excellent  plan  of  having  the 
streets  laid  out  with  reference  to  the  contour 
of  the  hills,  built  through  ornamental  parks 


32  THE  BETTER  CITY 

and  beside  winding  paths,  and  leading  to  the 
mission  homes  and  bungalows  which  crown  the 
summit. 

Opportunities  for  making  the  City  Beautiful 
are  far  greater  here  than  in  other  cities  built 
on  the  level  ground,  or  lacking  the  nearby 
mountain  views.  The  City  of  the  Angels  is 
beautiful  for  situation,  lying  as  it  does  at  the 
very  base  of  the  Sierra  Madre  Mountains.  Be- 
tween the  foothills,  to  the  north  and  east  of  the 
city,  there  are  many  valleys,  such  as  those  of 
San  Fernando,  Eagle  Rock,  San  Gabriel,  filled 
with  choice  towns,  destined  one  day  to  be  part 
of  the  greater  city.  The  hills  reaching  into 
the  very  heart  of  Los  Angeles  furnish  most 
sightly  places  for  beautiful  houses  and  magnif- 
icent hotels.  Some  of  our  country's  greatest 
tourist  hotels  are  now  being  built  upon  the  hill- 
tops, thus  making  it  possible  for  the  traveler  to 
avoid  the  brick-built,  noisy  hostelry  in  the 
midst  of  the  city's  commercial  life. 

The  city  is  divided  into  two  parts  by  the  Los 
Angeles  River,  the  high  east  bank  receding  in 
a  rolling  mesa,  while  on  the  more  level  ground 
to  the  west,  lies  the  business  district  of  the 
city.  Breaking  through  the  range  of  hills  in 
the  north,  the  river  throughout  its  entire 
length  can  be  made  into  a  line  of  beauty.  En- 
tering the  river  from  the  Pasadena  side,  is  the 
Arroyo  Seco,  a  stream  whose  bed  is  dry  in 
summer  but  which  in  winter  carries  quite  a 
volume  of  water.  This  is  bordered  with  a  nat- 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  33 

ural  growth  of  trees  and  shrubs,  live  oaks  and 
sycamores.  Along  this  can  be  made  one  of  the 
most  charming  drives  that  any  city  could  de- 
sire. Although  almost  in  the  heart  of  the 
greater  Los  Angeles,  the  Arroyo  has  the  effect 
of  silence  and  beauty  of  the  forest  and  moun- 
tain, and  along  its  banks  are  built  some  of  the 
most  unique  and  costly  dwellings  of  the  South- 
land. 

Senor  Dominguez,  of  the  great  Dominguez 
rancho,  was  the  first  dreamer  of  the  Greater 
Los  Angeles,  as  thirty  years  ago  he  prophesied 
"one  city  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea."  If 
that  lover  of  poetry  and  romance  could  return 
today  and  stand  upon  the  banks  of  the  Los 
Angeles  River,  much  like  other  rivers,  save  in 
the  quality  of  its  wave  reflection,  he  would  find 
it  possessing  still  all  its  ancient  possibilities  of 
beauty  and  adornment,  despite  the  fact  that  its 
banks  are  lined  with  factories  and  the  river 
bed  itself  is  sought  by  utilitarian  corporations. 
He  might  say  with  the  poet  Campbell,  who 
returned  to  his  beloved  Clyde,  and  found  it 
thus  defiled: 

"And  call  they  this  improvement? — to  have  changed 
My  native  Clyde,  thy  once  romantic  shore, 
Where  Nature's  face  is  banished  and  estranged 
And  Heaven  reflected  in  thy  wave  no  more." 

Think  of  what  value  to  the  city  this  river 
might  yet  become  if  placed  under  a  special 
commission  empowered  to  carry  out  a  definite 


34  THE  BETTER  CITY 

plan  for  its  reclamation  from  base  uses.  The 
river  should  be  crossed  by  ornamental  bridges, 
each  a  work  of  art;  beneath  the  bridges  and 
above  the  water  line,  should  be  the  city-owned 
tracks  for  both  steam  and  electric  railways. 
On  either  side  should  be  an  esplanade  with 
park  effects,  and  wide  driveways  for  automo- 
biles and  carriages,  with  a  pleasant  promenade 
beautifully  lighted  at  night  by  light  clusters  on 
ornamental  posts,  forming  a  natural  boulevard 
that  might  reach  even  to  the  sea.  The  border- 
ing factories  and  warehouses  should  be  hidden 
behind  a  wealth  of  climbing  vines  and  roses. 
The  land  for  the  new  civic  centers  in  Chicago 
cost  that  city  many  millions,  but  by  using  this 
river  bed,  such  centers  can  be  built  at  very 
small  cost.  We  would  suggest  the  following 
plan:  Let  the  river  bed  from  First  Street 
north  to  Elysian  Park  be  cleaned  of  all  rubbish 
and  undergrowth,  the  sand  hills  leveled,  thus 
making,  during  nine  months  of  the  year,  an 
extensive  playground  for  the  children  of  the 
congested  districts.  On  a  level  with  the 
bridges  there  could  be  built,  on  piers,  three 
civic  centers  with  halls  for  lectures  and  enter- 
tainments, club  rooms,  baths  and  gymnasium, 
with  steps  leading  down  to  the  riverbed  play- 
ground. Treated  according  to  such  a  plan,  the 
river  bed  may  add  much  to  the  making  of  the 
City  Beautiful.  And  yet  to  think  that  only  a 
few  months  ago,  this  river  with  all  its  latent 
possibilities,  was  almost  given  away  to  a  rail- 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  35 

road  corporation,  by  a  Council  which  did  not 
realize  its  value  to  the  city. 

No  one  can  speak  of  the  beautiful  in  Los 
Angeles  without  including  the  mother  moun- 
tains that  are  so  near.  Any  scheme  for  beau- 
tifying the  city  must  be  formed  with  reference 
to  this  wonderful  background.  Think  of  the 
cool  refreshing  canons,  within  easy  reach  of 
rich  and  poor  alike,  by  trolley  or  by  drive — 
Santa  Monica  Canon,  Cahuenga  Pass  the  can- 
ons of  Verdugo,  Millard,  Eaton,  Santa  Anita 
and  San  Gabriel.  In  two  hours  by  trolley,  incline 
and  burro  to  the  top  of  Mt.  Lowe ;  in  five  hours 
by  trolley  and  burro,  an  easy  journey  to  the 
summit  of  Mt.  Wilson,  overlooking  to  the 
south  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  to  the  north,  Pine 
Mountain,  Strawberry  Peak,  Barley  Flats, 
West  Fork,  and  on  to  the  far  Pacific  Mountain 
and  Mt.  Emma — an  inspiring  sight,  never  to  be 
forgotten.  The  tourist  who  does  not  make  this 
journey  has  not  seen  the  real  unchanging  Cali- 
fornia, with  its  primeval  forests  untouched  by 
man. 

Because  of  their  very  nearness  to  the  city's 
heart,  working  men  and  their  families,  in  in- 
creasing numbers  are  making  their  way  to  the 
mountain  tops.  Many  walk,  some  carry  their 
blankets  and  sleep  under  the  stars;  others 
with  dollars  in  their  pockets  to  pay  all  ex- 
penses, enjoy  all  the  luxuries  of  a  modern 
hotel.  Last  night,  the  writer,  surrounded  by 
his  family,  slept  on  a  mountain  in  the  open. 


36  THE  BETTER  CITY 

Awakened  by  the  rising  of  the  full-orbed 
moon,  he  saw  the  smaller  stars  put  to  sleep 
by  the  brighter  light,  and  only  the  larger  con- 
stellations remained  to  add  their  part  to  the 
brilliancy  of  the  night.  The  light  and  shadow 
of  tree  and  rock,  the  undulating  but  softened 
sky-line  presented  a  picture  for  an  artist.  The 
voices  of  the  night  made  only  sufficient  discord 
to  bring  out  the  harmony  of  the  strange  con- 
cert of  God's  little  creatures.  As  dawn  came 
on,  the  songs  of  the  birds  were  a  reminder  of 
the  saying  of  St.  Francis  when  the  birds  came 
about  him  in  the  mountains,  "I  believe,  dear- 
est brethren,  that  our  Lord  is  pleased  that  we 
should  dwell  on  this  solitary  mount,  inasmuch 
as  our  brothers  and  sisters,  the  birds,  show 
such  joy  at  our  coming."  It  will  do  you  good, 
my  friend,  if  you  can  for  a  few  days,  or  better 
still  for  a  few  weeks,  dwell  in  this  wonderful 
land  of  Mariana,  where  the  cares  of  today  do 
not  press,  and  tomorrow  seems  a  long  way  off. 
Journeying  to  the  mountain  tops,  you  at  last 
stand  in  the  presence  of  the  Great  Spirit.  For 
the  first  time,  it  may  be,  your  soul  seems  to  be 
at  one  with  the  divine.  Everything  is  in  tune 
with  the  infinite.  The  rising  sun,  tipping  with 
gold  the  eastern  mountains,  is  the  herald  of  a 
new  day;  the  wondrous  reach  of  mountains, 
rolling  range  on  range  into  the  almost  infinite 
distance  ;  the  giants  of  the  forest,  centuries  old  ; 
the  birds,  vari-colored  and  tuneful — are  not 
these  works  of  a  creator,  each  one  speaking  His 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  37 

Presence  in  a  voice  both  musical  and  sublime? 
Drink  in  here  of  God's  strength.  It  was  with 
you  when  you  were  in  the  midst  of  toil ;  when 
with  continuous  struggle  you  were  trying  to 
cast  out  demons,  but  knew  not  where  to  find 
the  power.  There  is  so  little  in  a  great  city 
that  speaks  of  the  spiritual,  but  on  the  moun- 
tain top  it  seems  to  press  in  at  every  pore. 
You  can  draw  it  in  at  every  breath.  You  can 
dip  down  deep  into  the  great  ocean  of  spiritual 
power  and  be  made  strong.  The  writer  longs 
for  such  changes  in  our  economic  life,  that  all 
the  city  workers  may  have  this  opportunity  of 
becoming  acquainted  with  "our  brothers  and 
sisters,  the  birds,"  and  receive  this  mountain- 
top  inspiration  for  the  better  life. 

Is  it  necessary  that  all  this  inspiration  be 
lost  on  the  return  to  the  artificiality  of  city 
life?  Must  it  evaporate  when  we  again  touch 
the  city,  with  its  brick  and  mortar,  its  steel  and 
cement,  its  hypocrisies  and  false  living?  Many 
of  the  city's  noblest  souls  are  saying  that  this 
is  not  necessary.  The  New  Los  Angeles  can 
be  made  a  place  of  inspiration  for  nobler  liv- 
ing, and  to  this  end  many  are  working  in 
church  and  settlement,  in  Woman's  Club  and 
Civic  League.  On  the  lowest  plane,  they  are 
teaching  those  who  cannot  understand  values 
unless  expressed  in  dollars,  that  beauty  pays. 
That  is  why  the  railroads  give  so  much  atten- 
tion to  the  beautifying  of  their  stations,  often 
maintaining  extensive  greenhouses  and  em- 


38  THE  BETTER  CITY 

ploying  expert  florists  and  landscape  garden- 
ers. The  Huntington  trolley  lines  are  bor- 
dered by  poppy-lined  boulevards.  Replacing 
the  old  plan  of  taking  the  travelers  through 
back  yards  and  dropping  them  down  in  the 
midst  of  low  groggeries,  is  the  newer  plan  of 
landing  them  in  a  beautiful  and  stately  station 
in  the  midst  of  a  flower  garden,  surrounded 
by  the  city's  most  imposing  buildings.  It 
surely  pays  to  give  the  impression  that  here  are 
citizens  with  high  standards  of  living  and 
noble  purposes — and  first  impressions  are  last- 
ing. "Pray,  Sir  Mercury,  why  ridest  thou  in 
so  fine  a  chariot,  when  thy  winged  sandals  will 
save  both  thy  time  and  birds,  too?"  "It  is  to 
show,"  quoth  the  god,  "an  example  to  mortals 
who  in  their  daily  affairs  ought  not  to  forget 
that  their  business  can  best  be  served  by 
beauty." 

And  if  beauty  pays,  there  is  still  a  higher 
reason  for  the  making  of  the  City  Beautiful — 
namely,  the  bearing  of  beauty  upon  morality. 
To  appeal  to  the  sense  of  beauty  takes  the 
mind  away  from  the  artificial  and  fixes  it  upon 
the  real;  it  softens  the  business  man  in  his 
competitive  struggle  and  gives  him  something 
better  worth  doing  than  crushing  his  less  for- 
tunate brethren ;  it  brings  all  men  to  that  place 
where  they  can  recognize  themselves  as  crea- 
tors— as  sons  of  God — and  feel  a  power  moving 
within  them,  which  before  was  lying  dormant ; 
it  gives  the  society  woman  something  better 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  39 

to  think  of  than  parties  and  dress;  it  is  calcu- 
lated to  produce  a  new  generation  of  large- 
hearted,  philanthropic,  altruistic  women,  of 
which  the  world  will  be  justly  proud. 

Healthful  conditions  of  living,  an  unsur- 
passed climate,  a  wealth  of  bloom  and  foliage, 
with  unlimited  room  for  expansion,  have 
brought  hither  many  wealthy  and  cultured 
families.  Pasadena,  Los  Angeles'  ideal  suburb, 
is  the  home  of  many  millionaires,  who  have 
built  beautiful  homes  surrounded  by  private 
parks — the  delight  of  all  eastern  visitors. 
Still  nearer  is  Hollywood,  the  home  of  de 
Longpre,  the  flower  artist,  which  no  one  should 
visit  the  city  without  seeing.  During  the  past 
year,  one  of  the  merchants  has  created  grounds 
equal  to  those  of  an  ancient  palace,  by  buying 
many  rare  old  trees  from  old-time  home  places, 
now  being  covered  with  business  blocks.  In 
this  way  he  will  have  grounds  of  surpassing 
beauty  which  it  would  otherwise  have  taken 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  acquire. 

William  Morris  taught  that  "it  is  the  business 
of  each  of  us  to  build  and  adorn  a  house  for 
our  own  physical  and  social  comfort  and  our 
artistic  joy."  In  Southern  California  as  no- 
where else  are  found  the  conditions  making 
this  easy  of  accomplishment.  Here  much 
thought  and  attention  are  given  to  home 
building,  and  the  leading  architects  of  the  city 
are  giving  of  their  best  efforts  to  the  produc- 
tion of  charming  houses.  And  no  commission 


40  THE  BETTER  CITY 

will  tempt  them  to  reproduce  the  style  of 
house  another  man  has  paid  for.  That  is  his 
home,  and  he  alone  has  a  right  to  the  plans. 
This  has  produced  a  city  of  many  styles  and 
kinds  of  architecture,  the  mission  predominat- 
ing because  of  its  adaptability  to  the  climate. 
Here  are  to  be  seen  wide,  overhanging  eaves 
and  cornices,  with  patios  and  loggias;  back 
yards  beautifully  decorated  with  flowers  and 
vines,  so  as  to  constitute  the  real  outdoor  liv- 
ing rooms.  "The  exterior  of  your  home,"  said 
Ruskin,  "is  not  private  property."  That  which 
can  be  seen  from  the  streets  is  the  real  concern 
of  the  neighbors  and  the  city  at  large.  The 
architecture  of  the  home,  the  decoration  of  the 
grounds  is  each  man's  contribution  to  the  City 
Beautiful,  and  one  way  in  which  he  can  give 
pleasure  and  enjoyment  to  the  people. 

A  very  great  addition  to  the  City  Beautiful 
is  made  by  the  great  sweep  of  ocean  on  the 
south  and  west  of  the  Greater  City.  The  old 
resorts  of  Santa  Monica,  Redondo,  San  Pedro 
and  Long  Beach  are  now  reenforced  by  many 
artistically  laid  out  towns  within  reach  of  all 
parts  of  Los  Angeles,  by  easy  and  rapid 
transit.  Venice  and  Naples  are  laid  out  with 
canals  and  stately  homes,  with  such  building 
restrictions  that  will  guarantee  perpetual  home 
sites  for  all  who  build.  For  a  fare  of  fifty 
cents,  anyone  can  spend  a  delightful  day  on 
the  beach,  and  the  cost  of  a  week's  vacation  is 
not  so  great  as  to  preclude  working  men  and 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  41 

their  families  from  having  an  opportunity  for 
such  an  outing. 

The  effect  of  beauty  upon  the  children  is  re- 
ceiving much  attention.  The  days  of  the  three 
R's  are  nearly  past,  and  through  nature  study 
and  school  gardens,  thousands  of  girls  and 
boys  are  receiving  an  ideal  education,  growing 
daily  stronger,  happier  and  better.  Greek  and 
Calculus  are  no  doubt  necessary  for  the  fullest 
development  of  the  mind,  but  the  boy  and  girl 
are  better  prepared  for  the  higher  studies,  if 
in  the  lower  grades  they  have  been  brought 
into  sympathetic  contact  with  the  simpler 
things  of  the  life  around  them.  "The  real  aim  of 
such  education  is  to  cultivate  close  observation 
of  plant  life,  to  instill  a  deep  love  for  plant  cul- 
ture, and  by  so  doing  awaken  the  young  stu- 
dent to  the  refining  influence  of  plants  in  the 
school  and  in  the  home,  and  to  enable  them  to 
be  an  inspiration  to  others  from  the  fullness  of 
their  pleasure  in  the  work."  Persian  boys, 
twenty  centuries  ago,  received  practical  in- 
struction in  horticulture,  and  for  years  school 
gardens  have  existed  on  the  Continent. 

In  America,  this  movement  for  bringing  city 
children  near  to  Nature's  heart  was  begun  by 
Mr.  Henry  Lincoln  Clapp  in  1890,  at  a  Boy's 
Grammar  School  in  Boston.  Here  wild  flow- 
ers and  ferns  were  raised,  and  ten  years  later 
a  kitchen  garden  was  added.  Small  school 
gardens  in  school  yards  were  slowly  under- 
taken in  other  cities.  From  1902,  until  the 


42  THE  BETTER  CITY 

present,  the  movement  has  gone  on  with  in- 
creasing interest,  alike  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher  and  pupils.  When  Mrs.  Henry  Par- 
sons succeeded  in  transforming  that  tract  of 
land  in  New  York,  covered  with  debris  and 
tumbledown  houses,  known  as  "Hell's 
Kitchen,"  and  by  the  aid  of  the  boys  and  girls 
made  it  a  most  beautiful  garden,  tended  by  a 
happy  class  of  orderly  children,  she  was  not 
raising  vegetables  alone,  but  was  training  souls 
in  the  things  that  are  of  abiding  value.  In 
every  city  of  our  land  is  now  found  the  school 
garden,  within  the  school  ground,  on  city- 
owned  land,  or  on  vacant  lots.  In  and  out  of 
the  school  hours,  the  child  is  kept  off  the 
street  and  placed  in  a  fairy  land  of  living 
green.  Said  Helen  C.  Bennett,  "The  plants  are 
his  children;  he  sows  the  seed,  watches  its 
birth  and  helps  its  growth.  Gardens  do  more 
than  train  the  hands  and  head;  they  touch  and 
awaken  the  soul."  Correlated  with  indoor 
studies,  these  outdoor  studies  make  almost 
alive  such  exercise  as  reading,  language,  spell- 
ing, arithmetic,  bookkeeping,  drawing,  geogra- 
phy and  history.  The  relation  of  this  new 
movement  to  the  City  Beautiful  can  be  seen 
at  a  glance.  Whenever  gardens  are  established 
and  prize  packets  of  seeds  are  sold  to  the  pu- 
pils, backyard  cultivation  begins,  sanitary  con- 
ditions are  improved,  piles  of  dirt  and  rubbish 
disappear,  peas,  beans,  lettuce  and  bright  flow- 
ers take  their  place,  and  the  City  Beautiful  be- 


THE   CITY    BEAUTIFUL  43 

gins  to  emerge  into  view.  The  call  for  teach- 
ers for  the  school  gardens  has  created  a  new 
profession,  and  already  normal  schools  are 
responding  to  the  demand  with  special  courses. 
In  Porto  Rico,  the  United  States  Government 
regularly  trains  teachers  for  this  work,  in  a 
course  comprising  theoretical  and  practical 
lessons  in  agriculture,  and  places  a  trained 
teacher  in  a  garden  for  every  school. 

One  great  trouble  in  this  and  other  cities,  is 
the  lack  of  land  for  the  purpose.  But  there  are 
many  ill-kept  lots,  whose  owners  might  be  per- 
suaded to  loan  them  to  the  school  board,  while 
waiting  for  an  increase  in  value,  thus  improv- 
ing the  appearance  of  the  city  and  the  character 
of  the  children  at  the  same  time. 

In  Los  Angeles  much  has  been  done  in  a 
local  way  by  Ward  Improvement  Associations. 
Some  years  ago,  the  Eighth  Ward  Association, 
in  the  most  congested  part  of  the  city,  placed 
the  following  circular  in  every  home,  with 
excellent  results :  "Neighbors,  let  us  cooperate 
that  we  may  have  clean  streets  and  sidewalks, 
front  and  rear  yards  beautified,  and  healthy 
surroundings  for  our  children.  To  this  end, 
let  us  see  that  the  street  in  front  of  the  resi- 
dence is  kept  clean  from  paper,  tins  and  all 
kinds  of  rubbish.  Put  cans,  bones,  ashes  in 
a  separate  receptacle  and  place  out  on  garbage 
days.  Teach  the  children  never  to  throw  gar- 
bage in  the  street.  It  is  unsightly,  and  may  be 
unhealthy.  Sweep  the  sidewalks  whenever 


44  THE  BETTER  CITY 

i 
necessary.     Report  all  cases  of  broken  sinks 

and  closets  to  the  health  office,  provided  the 
owner  will  not  fix  them.  Let  us  beautify  our 
yards.  In  this  wonderful  climate,  where  flow- 
ers grow  so  readily,  we  may  have  gardens 
which  would  be  the  pride  of  the  rich  in  the 
East.  Prepare  front  yards  and  back  yards  if 
possible;  fertilize  and  plant  seeds  and  vines. 
The  association  will  gladly  donate  the  seeds 
and  cuttings.  The  growth  of  potted  plants  for 
porches  and  windows  is  recommended.  Neigh- 
bors, let  us  cooperate." 

No  scheme  for  beautifying  the  city  can  be 
complete  that  does  not  include  a  comprehen- 
sive plan  for  a  metropolitan  park  system.  We 
have  scarcely  begun  to  plan  for  the  noiseless 
city,  but  are  content  to  allow  nerve-racking, 
unnecessary  noises.  We  join  the  rush  as 
though  there  was  no  time  for  else  but  business. 
We  wear  out  before  our  time.  The  park  offers 
the  opportunity  to  escape  from  the  noises 
and  associations  of  the  city,  and  in  touch  with 
Nature,  to  find  repose  for  mind  and  body. 
"The  parks  are  the  lungs  of  the  city.  They 
are  the  sanitariums  for  the  people  who  cannot 
afford  to  hie  themselves  to  the  country  or  sea- 
side. They  give  sunlight  and  green  fields  free 
of  cost.  They  are  the  civilizers  and  equalizers 
for  the  poor." 

In  England  the  Commons  were  gradually 
wrested  from  the  people  by  the  nobles,  and 
until  the  past  fifty  years,  the  people  have  had 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  45 

very  little  of  what  could  be  called  common 
land.  Kings  and  nobles  held  the  great  deer 
runs  and  forests  and  natural  parks  as  their 
own,  and  if  a  common  man  was  caught  poach- 
ing, he  could  be  banished  across  the  seas.  But 
times  have  changed  and  London  has  its  13,000 
acres  of  public  parks,  and  1,200  acres  of  private 
parks.  The  names  are  familiar  to  all — Hyde 
Park,  from  the  old  manor  of  Hyde,  is  400  acres 
in  extent;  Victoria  Park,  of  300  acres;  Ham- 
stead  Heath,  of  240  acres;  Regent's  Park,  of 
450  acres;  Kensington  Gardens,  once  a  king's 
palace,  of  290  acres.  Paris  has  nearly  90,000 
acres  devoted  to  public  parks,  the  parks  of 
France  being  pieces  of  primeval  forests  pre- 
served from  the  days  of  Julius  Caesar.  In 
America  many  cities  have  parks  that  have 
cost  them  millions  of  dollars  to  acquire,  and 
yet  they  have  felt  that  it  was  money  well  in- 
vested. If  the  cities  had  awakened  earlier  to 
the  value  of  their  beauty  spots,  for  how  much 
less  might  this  land  have  been  obtained ! 

In  proportion  to  its  population,  Los  Angeles 
ranks  well  in  the  size  of  its  parks.  Yet  seeing 
we  all  believe  that  this  city  is  soon  to  have  a 
million  inhabitants,  now  is  the  time  to  preempt 
more  land  for  parks,  both  large  and  small. 
For  instance,  in  the  foothills  and  mountains 
there  are  many  small  but  beautiful  canons, 
now  privately  owned,  that  ought  to  be  acquired 
to  serve  as  pleasure  ground  for  the  larger  city. 
Some  part  of  the  ocean  front  should  be  re- 
4 


46  THE  BETTER  CITY 

served  for  great  seaside  parks,  for  all  time. 
The  perpetual  use  of  the  Sierra  Madres  as  a 
pleasure  resort  has  been  guaranteed  to  the 
city  by  the  Government,  through  the  with- 
drawal from  the  market  of  the  hundreds  of 
miles  of  mountains,  making  them  a  timber 
reserve,  which  is  as  sacred  as  a  National  Park. 
What  more  can  be  done  with  the  present 
park  area  of  this  city?  Excepting  Elysian  and 
Griffith  Park,  all  are  now  under  a  high  state 
of  cultivation,  filled  with  choice  shrubs,  trees 
and  flowers — things  of  grace  and  beauty — with 
lakes,  boats,  swans,  seals,  animals  and  birds, 
a  study  ground  in  botany  and  zoology  for 
every  child  in  school.  Outside  of  a  few  small 
parks,  the  present  demand  is  not  for  more 
elaborate  landscape  gardening,  but  for  larger 
tracts  of  land,  where  the  underbrush  is  cleared 
only  in  part,  and  there  is  the  natural  condition 
which  the  city  dweller  longs  for;  parks  so 
large  that  there  is  room  for  the  planting  of  all 
kinds  of  trees  in  their  native  soils  and  alti- 
tudes. Los  Angeles  has  two  such  parks. 
Elysian  Park,  one  of  these,  contains  500  acres, 
and  is  the  remnant  of  thousands  of  acres  once 
owned  by  the  city.  Lying  in  the  frostless 
belt,  almost  any  tropical  growth  can  be  made 
to  flourish  there.  It  is  in  the  south  bend  of 
the  Los  Angeles  River,  and  from  its  highest 
point  is  to  be  seen  a  panorama  of  mountain, 
hill  and  valley,  grand  and  beautiful.  As  yet 
this  valuable  ground,  save  in  its  botanical  gar- 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  47 

dens,  is  cultivated  only  at  the  entrance  of 
Fremont  Gate. 

The  beautiful  Fairmont  Park  in  Philadel- 
phia, costing  the  city  $9,000,000,  is  said  to  be 
worth  $175,000,000.  What  then  will  be  the 
value,  a  quarter  of  a  century  hence  of  Griffith 
Park,  the  other  of  our  extensive  parks,  and 
the  largest  park  site  of  any  city,  having  over 
3,000  acres  of  hill  and  valley,  with  cactus 
slopes  and  wooded  dale  ?  This  park,  the  gift  of 
Mr.  Griffith,  is  now  far  from  the  city,  and  as 
yet  without  adequate  drives  and  approaches. 
The  National  Government  has  offered  to  grant 
many  trees  each  year  for  the  proper  planting 
of  the  hillsides.  The  best  possible  plan  for  the 
forming  of  an  up-to-date  park  should  be  made 
by  competent  engineers,  and  worked  out  year 
by  year,  as  money  is  available.  Los  Angeles 
as  yet  scarcely  realizes  the  value  of  this  gift. 
Dr.  W.  A.  Lamb,  formerly  of  the  Park  Com- 
mission, makes  a  valuable  suggestion  that 
should  be  followed :  "We  should  ask  the  leg- 
islature to  create  a  non-political  park  com- 
mission to  take  up  the  work  of  amplifying; 
also  ask  that  the  Supreme  Court  be  vested 
with  the  power  of  creating  a  treasury  board, 
these  two  bodies  to  act  jointly  as  custodians  of 
any  property  that  might  be  donated  to  the 
State  for  civic  improvement.  We  want  to 
make  it  easy  for  our  wealthy  citizens  to  con- 
tribute to  the  public's  pleasure  and  comfort." 

But  it  is  not  enough  that  citizens  are  inter- 


48  THE  BETTER  CITY 

ested  in  sections  of  their  own  city.  The  pres- 
ent demand  is  for  a  comprehensive  plan  of 
beautifying  buildings  covering  not  only  the 
present  city,  but  reaching  far  out  into  the 
suburbs.  There  has  been  a  rapid  growth  of 
this  new  idea.  Already  there  are  over  800  as- 
sociations in  various  parts  of  the  land,  work- 
ing for  the  City  Beautiful.  This  demand  has 
created  a  new  profession — that  of  the  city 
architect,  beauty  expert,  or  civic  decorator — a 
profession  so  unique  that  the  title  has  not  yet 
become  fixed.  There  are  a  few  leaders  of 
national  repute,  such  as  Frederick  Law  Olm- 
stead,  Daniel  Burnham  and  Charles  M.  Robin- 
son, who  are  rapidly  making  a  name  for  them- 
selves. Many  young  men  in  school  will  no 
doubt  choose  this  profession  and  become  lead- 
ers in  the  creation  of  the  newer  cities  of  the 
future,  and  in  the  rebuilding  of  older  ones. 
Far  ahead  of  their  time  were  George  Washing- 
ton and  Major  L'Enfant,  who  laid  out  the 
plans  for  the  Capital  City  in  1791.  Much  of 
their  plan,  too  great  for  their  successors,  was 
spoiled  in  the  development,  yet  a  late  com- 
mission has  been  given  power  to  carry  out 
the  group  scheme  of  building  in  making  the 
new  Washington. 

Under  Olmstead's  direction,  Kansas  City 
has  begun  its  fight  for  beauty.  Perhaps  the 
most  notable  plan  is  that  of  Olmstead  for  the 
grouping  of  public  buildings  in  Cleveland,  re- 
making the  city  according  to  a  definite  plan. 


THE   CITY   BEAUTIFUL  49 

Although  costing  many  millions,  the  people  of 
Cleveland  have  decided  on  making  the  city 
over  according  to  the  new  idea.  A  wonderful 
city  will  be  the  result. 

Three  years  ago  public-spirited  citizens  in 
San  Francisco,  imbued  by  a  new  spirit  of  civic 
adornment,  founded  the  "Association  for  the 
Improvement  and  Adornment  of  San  Fran- 
cisco," with  James  D.  Phelan,  ex-mayor,  as 
president.  They  immediately  employed  Mr. 
Burnham  to  draw  plans  for  the  City  Beautiful 
by  the  Golden  Gate.  He  and  his  assistants, 
seated  in  their  bungalow  on  Twin  Peaks 
wrought  out  a  plan  such  as  would  have  made 
this  the  Naples  of  the  New  World,  a  plan  so 
large,  and  requiring  so  many  changes  in 
streets  and  buildings,  that  as  Burnham  said, 
to  work  it  out  in  its  fullness  would  have  taken 
more  years  than  we  live,  and  more  millions 
perhaps  that  than  we  can  guess.  But  a  dire 
calamity  fell  upon  that  city.  Undaunted,  Mr. 
Phelan  called  for  the  architect  to  return,  to 
tell  them  what  could  be  done  with  a  city  in  ruin. 
Again  a  plan  was  drawn  with  widened  streets, 
a  civic  center,  terraced  hilltops,  boulevards, 
parks,  an  amphitheater,  a  gigantic  acropolis, 
and  so  on  in  mighty  proportions.  God  grant 
that  somehow,  at  some  time,  this  dream  of 
Daniel  Burnham's  may  yet  come  true,  and 
that  this  sea-locked  city  may  rise  from  its 
great  misfortune  and  be  a  better,  fairer  and 
wiser  city,  a  place  beautiful  to  behold,  where 


50  THE  BETTER  CITY 

the  children  of  men  will  be  glad  to  call  them- 
selves the  followers  of  the  humble  St.  Francis. 
But  Los  Angeles  with  much  of  natural 
beauty,  also  needs  a  city  plan  that  the  best 
results  may  be  secured.  The  Municipal  Art 
Commission  has  invited  a  city  architect  to 
aid  us.  When  he  comes  it  will  be  well,  if 
like  Mr.  Burnham  on  the  Twin  Peaks,  he 
could  live  on  the  summit  of  one  of  the  near-by 
mountains,  until  there  should  come  to  him 
the  mighty  vision  of  the  "City  of  our  Lady  of 
the  Angels,"  wrought  out  into  the  City  Beau- 
tiful, with  mountain,  foothills,  river,  hilltops, 
seashore,  parks,  boulevards,  happy  homes — 
with  the  prodigality  of  nature  overmantling 
all — and  when  that  vision  should  find  embodi- 
ment in  a  definite  plan,  no  true  son  of  this 
Southland  would  fail  to  give  the  plan  endorse- 
ment and  support,  even  though  it  might  cost 
millions  to  fulfill  the  dream.  It  will  pay  well 
to  make  this  the  City  Beautiful,  inasmuch 
as  that  will  go  far  toward  making  it  the  Better 
City. 


CHAPTER  III. 
CIVIC  BETTERMENT 

All  cities  have  gone  wrong.    Graft  and  mis- 
rule have  corrupted  politics.     The  saloon,  the 
gambling  hell,  the  house  of  ill-fame,  have  de- 
bauched the  young  and  wrecked  the  lives  of 
thousands.     Because  there  was  money  to  be 
made   by   building   tenements,    multitudes    of 
children   have   been   cursed   rather  than  born 
into  the  world.     By  exploiting  the   labor  of 
women  and  children,  lives  have  been  blighted 
and  a  false  standard  of  living  created.     The 
corporation  and  the  trust  are  able,  because  of 
their  vast  resources,  to  escape  taxation  and  to 
secure  laws  favorable  to  their  interests.     Self- 
interest  has  been  taking  for  itself  that  which 
belongs  to  the  people.    All  through  the  years, 
organized  religion  has  been  seeking  to  better 
conditions    largely   through    reaching   the    in- 
dividual.    Los  Angeles  is  a  city  of  churches, 
closely  banded  together  in  their  work  for  hu- 
manity's uplift.  The  schools  are  super-excellent 
in  teaching  force,  in  buildings  and  in  advanced 
methods.      Its   citizens,    gathered   from    every 
quarter,  are  of  a  high  class.     All  these  it  has, 
and  yet  it  has  missed  the  mark.     Within  the 
last  few  years,  unselfishness,  in  its  efforts  to 
restrain   organized   selfishness,   has   itself   be- 


52  THE  BETTER  CITY 

come  organized,  much  to  the  discomfiture  of 
the  mercenaries  who  have  controlled  the  gov- 
ernment and  pocketed  the  gains.  There  must 
in  the  future  be  no  less  work  for  individual 
betterment,  but  upon  a  right  understanding  of 
the  social  obligations  is  where  the  emphasis 
is  to  be  laid.  The  children  in  their  schools, 
the  mothers  in  their  congresses,  the  women  in 
their  clubs,  the  voters  in  their  leagues,  the  min- 
isters and  the  laymen  in  their  conventions,  are 
with  high  civic  ideals  working  with  grim  de- 
termination to  make  the  City  of  the  Angels 
a  better  place  in  which  to  live. 
(*  The  best  citizens  are  now  no  longer  money 
makers  and  spenders  only,  but  they  are  inter- 
ested in  playgrounds  and  baths ;  in  coffee  clubs, 
and  men's  hotels ;  in  vacation  schools ;  and 
school  gardens ;  in  university  extension  courses 
and  in  social  settlements;  in  improvement  as- 
sociations and  in  adornment  commissions;  in 
the  new  charity  and  in  the  new  patriotism ;  in 
the  housing  problem ;  in  sanitation ;  in  health 
and  in  morals;  in  anti-saloon  measures  and  in 
saloon  substitutes;  in  law  enactment  and  in 
law  enforcement;  in  fact  in  civic  betterment 
in  all  its  phases.  With  an  increasing  number 
of  the  best  citizens,  the  interest  is  not  so  much 
in  exploiting  real  estate  as  in  the  development 
of  true  citizenship.  The  Non-partisan  in  city 
government  is  altruistic.  The  Women's  Club 
is  practical  in  its  methods  of  work,  dealing 
with  billboards  and  garbage,  municipal  art 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  53 

and  ornamental  bridges,  the  Juvenile  Court 
and  the  Detention  Home,  the  noiseless  City, 
and  the  City  Beautiful. 

The    organized    movements    for    civic    bet- 
terment  have   become   specialized   in   various 
clubs   and   leagues.     The   Chamber   of   Com- 
,jjierce,  one  of  the  largest  organizations  of  its 
kincTm  the  world,  devotes  its  attention  to  the 
furtherance  of  the  interests  of   Los  Angeles, 
advertising  its  commercial  advantages  through- 
out the  East,  and  locally  aiding  such  move- 
ments as  are  calculated  to  increase  its  desir- 
ability as  a  place  of  residence  or  business.     It\ 
keeps  a  close  watch  on  corporations  seeking  \ 
their   own    selfish    interests    rather   than    the    1 
larger  ends  of  the  community.    The  creati 
public  opinion  through  its  various  committees, 
in  regard  to  such  matters  as  roads,  and  boul- 
evards, is  no  small  part  of  its  activities. 

The  Municipal  League  is  a  body  of  over  600 
prominent  citizens,  joined  for  the  purpose  of 
better  government.  While  acting  as  a  general 
detective  agency  in  discovering  wrong  and 
in  following  up  evil  doers,  its  chief  work  is 
constructive,  standing  as  it  does  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  highest  type  of  civic  govern- 
ment. To  stimulate  interest  in  the  subject  of 
civic  beauty,  the  Secretary  of  the  League  gives 
stereopticon  lectures  before  churches  and  Im- 
provement Associations.  Because  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  city  and  the  great  issues  to  come 
before  the  municipality;  such  as  the  Owen's 


54  THE  BETTER  CITY 

River  water  system;  the  consolidation  ques- 
tion; and  the  great  civic  improvement  prop- 
ositions; this  League  has  a  wide  field  of  use- 
fulness before  it,  especially  along  the  line  of 
suggestion,  for  "the  contagion  of  suggestion" 
applies  to  the  good  as  well  as  to  the  bad.  The 
question  of  better  streets  has  been  promoted 
by  this  organization.  It  believes  that  outside 
of  the  paved  area  the  best  results  can  be  ob- 
tained by  the  adoption  of  what  is  known  as  the 
petrolithic  method.  This  method  which  was 
worked  out  first  in  Santa  Monica  gives  a  road 
which  is  said  to  be  near  perfection.  The  street 
is  harrowed  up  and  the  oil  mixed  with  dirt  un- 
til a  paste  is  made.  This  is  then  tamped  down 
by  machinery  until  it  is  almost  as  hard  as  an 
asphalt  street.  The  cost  of  this  type  of  road  is 
$3,000  a  mile,  and  it  does  not  need  repairing 
for  seven  years. 

It  is  this  newly  awakened  interest  in  such 
practical  details  on  the  part  of  the  leading  cit- 
izens that  affords  ground  for  an  optimistic 
view  of  the  city's  future.  Let  us  hope  that 
never  again  shall  this  city  backslide  because 
its  citizens  are  too  busy  about  their  individual 
affairs  to  detect  the  evil  and  to  suggest  and  la- 
bor for  the  good. 

f  The  Merchants  and  Manufacturers  Asso- 
ciation is  an  organization  of  business  men 
which  devotes  its  attention  to  guarding  the 

1^  business   activities  of  the   city   against 


It  is  largely  due  to  the  work  of  this  Asso- 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  55 

ciation  that  the  annual  celebrations  of  the 
Fiesta  de  las  Flores  are  so  much  of  a  success, 
as  they  are  under  the  direction  of  that  organi- 
zation. 

The  three  largest  organizations  of  men  are 
often  called  upon  to  suggest  methods  of  action 
for  the  city  officials,  or  for  advice  regarding 
any  great  question  when  there  is  not  the  time 
or  the  money  to  refer  it  to  the  people. 

Another  group  of  men,  joined  together  for 
the  purpose  of  bettering  existing  conditions, 
and  which  has  done  much  in  the  past,  is  the 
Voter's  League.  Owing  to  the  speed  at  which 
the  powerful  trolley  cars  are  run  in  the  city, 
and  the  utter  inadequacy  of  the  fenders  with 
which  these  cars  were  provided,  a  large  number 
of  accidents  and  deaths  was  the  inevitable  re- 
sult. The  Voter's  League  took  under  con- 
sideration the  rectification  of  both  these  mat- 
ters. Booths  were  erected  on  the  street  corners 
and  the  signatures  of  over  4,000  voters  were 
secured,  calling  for  a  special  election.  But  be- 
fore this  was  resorted  to,  the  League  persuaded 
the  Council  to  adopt  an  ordinance  compelling 
the  use  of  proper  fenders  and  the  reduction  of 
the  speed  to  four  miles  an  hour  within  the 
heart  of  the  city,  and  to  eight  miles  an  hour 
farther  out.  Since  the  adoption  of  this  ordi- 
nance, several  persons  whom  the  cars  have 
struck  and  who  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
killed  under  the  former  existing  conditions, 
have  been  safely  carried  by  the  fenders  until  the 


56  THE  BETTER  CITY 

motorman  was  able  to  bring  his  car  to  a  stand- 
still. If  nothing  further  is  accomplished  by 
this  League,  it  has  amply  justified  its  existence 
by  this  bit  of  legislation  so  essential  to  the  pub- 
lic welfare. 

A  recent  organization  is  that  of  the  City 
Club,  which  has  for  its  purpose  the  consider- 
ation and  discussion  of  municipal  topics.  It 
has  a  membership  of  over  250,  and  gath- 
ers once  a  week  at  the  lunch  hour.  There 
are  no  other  obligations  connected  with  this 
club  than  the  occasional  attendance.  While 
it  is  not  the  intention  of  this  organization  to 
take  up  active  work,  its  discussions  are  of 
great  benefit,  clarifying  the  minds  of  its  mem- 
bers on  important  issues  and  as  all  the  pub- 
lic officials  are  invited  to  its  meetings,  it  will 
serve  as  a  means  of  linking  together  the  ad- 
ministration and  those  interested  in  best  de- 
velopment of  the  city. 

The  Civic  League  is  an  organization  of  young 
men,  formed  for  the  purpose  of  study  along 
civic  lines.  Meeting  at  regular  periods,  it 
has  subjects  of  local  interest  presented  for  con- 
sideration. Thus  acquainting  themselves  in- 
timately with  local  conditions,  these  young 
men  are  fitting  themselves  to  play  a  strong 
part  in  the  affairs  of  the  future. 

In  their  proper  place,  we  wish  to  refer  to  the 
great  work  for  civic  betterment  undertaken 
by  organized  women ;  by  the  temperance 
forces;  by  the  Federated  Churches;  by  the 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  57 

social  settlements;  labor  unions;  by  musical 
clubs  and  art  centers;  and  by  large-hearted 
individuals.  No  matter  how  large  this  city 
may  become,  because  of  this  grand  band  of 
earnest  workers  which  will  grow  rather  than 
diminish,  slums  will  never  exist,  public  own- 
ership will  become  an  established  fact,  thus 
protecting  the  city  official  from  the  bribery 
of  public  utility  corporations.  Thus  many  of 
the  evils  which  have  afflicted  us  will  trouble 
us  no  more,  and  instead,  new  visions  of  a 
larger  brotherhood  will  fill  the  hearts  of  all. 

But  all  the  work  for  civic  betterment  is 
not  being  done  as  the  result  of  private 
initiative.  The  city  itself  is  seeking  the  moral 
uplift,  physical  improvement,  and  enjoyment 
of  all  the  people.  As  we  have  seen,  the  work 
for  the  City  Beautiful  is  also  work  for  the 
civic  betterment.  The  Park  Board  with  all 
its  plans  for  breathing  spots  and  nature  re- 
sorts, the  Municipal  Art  Commission,  and 
the  Playground  Commission,  are  all  to  be 
included  in  the  list  of  those  forces  working 
for  civic  betterment. 

No  city  has  ever  been  made  permanently 
better  that  has  not  given  serious  attention  to 
its  delinquents.  A  constant  stream  of  wrecked 
and  ruined  humanity  pours  through  the  po- 
lice courts  and  jails.  It  is  necessary  for  us  to 
inquire  into  the  underlying  causes  of  this  con- 
dition. A  Los  Angeles  writer  puts  it  thus 
tersely:  "The  civilized  world  is  just  at  the 


58  THE  BETTER  CITY 

threshold  of  a  deeper  and  more  complete  real- 
ization of  the  responsibility  of  society  for  the 
existence  of  those  delinquents  and  of  the  price 
it  pays  for  their  existence.  The  spirit  of  angry 
revenge  that  has  existed  for  so  many  centuries 
and  the  fatalistic  sentiment  that  these  condi- 
tions are  inevitable,  and  that  no  one  is  to  blame 
for  them,  are  in  turn  giving  way  to  a  belief  that 
society  is  to  blame,  and  that  it  holds  the  means 
of  remedy  in  its  own  hands.  The  juvenile 
courts,  the  children's  playgrounds,  factory  leg- 
islation, compulsory  education,  better  housing 
conditions,  vacation  schools,  fresh-air  move- 
ments— these  are  the  things  that  strike  at  the 
root  of  the  trouble,  and  in  the  course  of  one 
or  two  generations  will  make  the  world  ma- 
terially better.  If  every  child  born  into  the 
world  could  be  sure  of  light  and  air  and  exer- 
cise, cleanliness,  sufficient  food,  education, 
amusement,  and  decent  surroundings,  there 
would  be  almost  no  delinquents;  and  if  the 
few  that  came  into  existence  in  spite  of  such 
a  regime  were  justly  and  kindly  but  firmly 
dealt  with,  there  would  be  hope  for  their 
reformation.  These  things  are  not  impossible ; 
they  are  merely  deferred." 

But  society  must  care  not  alone  for  the 
delinquents,  but  also  for  the  dependents  and 
the  defectives.  The  back  door  thrust  and  the 
wayside  dole  will  never  furnish  any  satisfac- 
tory relief.  In  Los  Angeles  there  is  not  a  great 
amount  of  poverty,  if  we  accept  the  definition 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  59 

of  Robert  Hunter,  who  maintains  that  "those 
who  are  in  poverty  may  be  able  to  get  a  bare 
sustenance,  but  they  are  not  able  to  obtain 
those  necessaries  which  will  enable  them  to 
maintain  a  state  of  physical  efficiency."  When 
we  consider  that  there  are  no  less  than  ten 
million  persons  in  the  United  States  who  are 
underfed,  underclothed  and  poorly  housed,  Los 
Angeles  will  be  found  to  fall  far  below  the 
average  in  her  proportion  of  dependents.  — ^ 
For  many  years,  owing  to  the  rapid  develop-  \ 
ment  of  the  city,  a  large  proportion  of  the 
laboring  men  of  the  city  have  been  able  to 
secure  work  at  not  less  than  $2.00  a  day,  and 
men  with  trades  have  been  able  to  secure  even 
as  much  as  $6.00  a  day.  There  being  no 
lost  in  winter,  and  no  demand  for  extra  cloth- 
ing and  coal,  there  are  few  reasons  why  anyone 
should  fall  below  the  line  of  physical  efficiency. 
Yet  there  are  always  some  who  are  not  able  to 
make  even  a  limited  success  of  life.  There 
are  incompetents  and  defectives  who  need  par- 
ental care.  Temporary  sickness  or  accidents; 
chronic  disease,  desertion,  strikes  and  lockouts ; 
the  result  of  economic  conditions  beyond  their 
control ;  drinking  or  gambling — any  of  these 
may  send  families  below  the  line  of  self-sup- 
port, where  they  may  need  help.  It  is  the 
testimony  of  all  social  workers  that  the  average 
working  men  will  seek  charity  only  after  every 
other  resort  has  failed.  That  being  so,  the 
condition  in  New  York  City  must  be  very  bad, 


60  THE  BETTER  CITY 

since  we  read  that  one  in  every  ten  who  died 
there  was  buried  in  the  Potter's  Field.  In  Los 
Angeles  it  is  rare  that  a  member  of  a  working 
man's  family  ever  receives  such  a  burial.  For 
those  who  are  bread  winners,  the  most  effective 
charity  is  that  which  helps  men  to  help  them- 
selves, finding  them  employment,  or  as  in  New 
Zealand,  sending  them  where  there  is  a  scar- 
city of  labor.  The  Associated  Charities  of. 
Los  Angeles  is  a  well-organized  institution, 
whose  offers  of  assistance  are  based  on  inves- 
tigation and  actual  knowledge,  and  are  accom- 
panied by  the  touch  of  personal  sympathy. 
Mr.  A.  J.  Pillsbury,  Secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Examiners,  speaking  of  Los  Angeles, 
says:  "When  a  case  of  distress  is  reported  to 
the  Associated  Charities,  the  first  thing  they 
do  is  to  relieve  such  pressing  need  as  may 
exist.  Then  they  investigate  the  causes  and 
remove  them  if  possible.  It  may  be  lack  of 
work,  or  it  may  be  a  husband  who  has  run 
away.  In  the  first  case,  work  is  found;  and 
in  the  second,  the  husband  is  found  if  possible, 
and  straightway  coerced  into  the  path  of  for- 
saken duty.  In  short,  they  try  to  do  whatever 
is  necessary  under  the  infinitely  varying  cir- 
cumstances of  human  distress.  It  may  be  a 
widow  who  could  do  fairly  well  but  for  the 
incessant  demands  of  young  children,  and 
then  perhaps  relatives  can  be  persuaded  to 
come  forward,  or  it  may  be  that  some  chari- 
table family  will  make  itself  responsible  for 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  61 

one  of  the  children  until  the  sun  shines  out 
again  from  behind  the  clouds.  Think  how  in- 
finitely better  this  is  than  an  immediate  appeal 
for  the  State  funds  and  the  State  machinery, 
a  pauperization  inflicted  when  there  is  not  need 
for  it;  a  loss  of  human  dignity  instead  of  the 
increase  of  human  dignity  that  comes  from  an 
unobtrusive  and  sympathetic  helping  hand. 
Think  of  the  saving  of  the  public  funds,  and 
think,  too,  of  the  number  of  children  who  are 
thus  guarded  from  the  delinquency  and  crim- 
inality that  must  surely  follow  upon  neglect 
for  which  the  overworked  and  harassed 
mother  can  hardly  be  held  responsible." 

The  real  success  of  organized  charity  lies  not 
in  detecting  so  many  frauds,  or  in  placing  so 
many  persons  in  institutions,  or  in  relieving 
immediate  want.  This  does  not  go  far  enough 
if  the  inspirational  side  of  charity  is  left  out. 
The  friendly  visitor  by  advice  or  because  of 
large  knowledge  is  able  to  encourage  and 
gradually  bring  back  to  self-support  and  to 
self-respect  the  one  who  had  dropped  below 
the  line.  Statistics  and  reports  necessary  as 
they  may  be  to  scientific  charity,  must  be  sup- 
plemented by  the  human  touch.  Palliative 
measures  are  not  sufficient.  Poverty  and  vice 
and  crime  are  sicknesses  of  society  and  can  be 
cured  as  readily  as  bad  diseases,  but  the  cause 
of  the  disease  must  first  of  all  be  discovered 
if  a  permanent  cure  is  to  be  effected. 

The    present    industrial    system     produces*") 
5  U 


THE  BETTER  CITY 

much  of  the  poverty  that  confronts  us;  it  re- 
sults in  accidents  that  cripple  the  bread  winner, 
perhaps  for  life;  the  breaking  up  of  the  unity 
of  the  family,  because  both  parents  and  chil- 
dren are  forced  to  the  factories  and  workshops, 
under  unwholesome  sanitary  conditions.  "The 
hoe-man  in  the  making,"  Edwin  Markham  calls 
the  child  worker.  When  society  remedies 
these  and  other  evils,  we  will  be  well  on  the 
way  to  the  cure  of  poverty.  The  most  difficult 
and  delicate  charity  question  in  this  city  is  the 
care  of  the  vagrants  who  drift  here  for  the 
winter,  and  the  helplessly  sick  who  are  sent 
here  to  be  cured  by  the  climate,  and  who  often 
come  with  the  expectation  that  they  will  be 
cared  for  by  the  philanthropic  societies  while 
in  our  midst. 

In  the  belief  that  cleanliness  of  person  is  not 
only  elevating  in  its  effect  upon  mind  and 
morals,  but  also  necessary  to  the  health  and 
to  the  warding  off  of  disease,  many  cities  have 
in  the  last  fifteen  years  undertaken  the  erection 
of  Municipal  Bath  Houses.  While  in  Europe 
such  bath  and  wash  houses  have  existed  for 
many  years,  and  while  in  America  there  were 
some  private  enterprises  and  a  few  Municipal 
Beach  and  Floating  Baths,  it  remained  for  one 
man  to  work,  almost  single  handed,  for  the 
universal  adoption  of  public  baths.  Dr.  Simon 
Baruch  of  New  York  was  the  first  promoter  of 
the  movement,  and  but  for  him,  there  might 
not  be  a  free  public  bath  in  the  United  States 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  63 

today.  He  based  his  plea  on  the  fact  that  in 
cleanliness  lies  the  essential  principle  of  sani- 
tation. He  pointed  out  the  absurdity  of  the 
annual  expenditure  of  millions  to  relieve  dis- 
tress, when  almost  nothing  was  done  to  pre- 
vent disease  and  improve  the  condition  of  the 
poor  while  still  in  health.  When  in  Los  An- 
geles several  months  ago,  Dr.  Baruch  urged 
the  city  to  be  up-to-date  and  introduce  the 
rain  bath,  now  so  common  in  Eastern  cities. 
In  a  newspaper  interview,  he  said:  "I  confess 
that  I  have  done  more  to  save  life  and  prevent 
the  spread  of  disease  in  my  work  for  public 
baths  than  in  all  my  work  as  a  physician.  It 
is  the  duty  of  the  municipality  to  prevent  dis- 
ease. It  is  the  duty  of  the  municipality  to  pre- 
vent immorality.  I  believe  that  money  spent 
for  public  baths  where  people  can  go  and  get 
clean  does  more  toward  raising  the  standard 
of  health  and  morality  than  a  much  greater 
amount  spent  in  any  other  way."  To  this 
New  York's  Health  Commissioner  adds  that 
public  baths  tend  to  lessen  pneumonia  and 
tuberculosis,  the  chief  cause  of  mortality 
among  New  York's  poor,  because  bathing  re- 
duces the  liability  to  colds  and  throat  trouble. 
The  Boston  Bath  Commission  reports  "a 
marked  decrease  in  juvenile  arrests  during  the 
past  ten  years  and  that  the  work  of  the  Bath 
Department  has  been  the  greatest  single 
agency  affecting  this  vital  improvement  in 
public  morals," 


64  THE  BETTER  CITY 

The  first  baths  to  be  opened  all  the  year 
around  were  in  Yonkers  and  Chicago;  then 
followed  Boston,  Baltimore,  Albany,  Cleve- 
land, and  tardily,  New  York.  Once  started, 
this  latter  city  is  rapidly  building  baths  in  all 
parts,  and  if  the  present  plans  are  carried  out, 
it  will  soon  have  a  system  of  free  baths,  the 
like  of  which  has  not  been  known  since  the 
passing  of  the  noted  baths  of  ancient  Rome. 
The  Philadelphia  system  has  become  so  pop- 
ular that  in  a  single  week  during  last  summer 
more  than  half  a  million  men,  women  and 
children  sought  relief  from  the  sweltering  heat 
within  these  free  bath  houses. 

The  cost  of  buildings  in  the  various  cities 
differs  greatly,  some  cities  preferring  marble 
and  slate  and  fancy  fixtures,  others  being  con- 
tent with  open  beams  and  with  unplastered 
brick.  Dover  Street  Baths  in  Boston  cost 
$870,000  for  forty  sprays ;  Rivington  Baths  in 
New  York  cost  but  $104,000  for  sixty-seven 
sprays.  In  Chicago  the  cost  varies  from 
$7,500  to  $15,000  for  from  fifteen  to  thirty-five 
sprays.  Baltimore  has  been  able  to  provide 
houses  with  thirty  to  forty-five  sprays  at  a 
cost  of  from  $25,000  to  $40,000.  Dr.  Baruch 
considers  the  expenditure  of  the  higher  amount 
as  wanton  extravagance.  The  kind  of  bath 
to  be  used  was  a  vexed  question  in  the  early 
days  of  bath  house  building.  The  principles 
of  sanitation,  thorough  cleansing,  together 
with  economy  of  space,  time,  water  and  service 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  65 

all  had  to  be  taken  into  consideration.  The 
solution  of  this  problem  led  to  the  abolition 
of  the  tub  and  the  adoption  of  the  German 
rain,  or  shower  bath.  In  this  way  the  ex- 
pense of  the  tub  was  avoided ;  there  was  a  sav- 
ing of  time  required  both  for  the  filling  of  the 
tub  and  the  scrubbing  of  it  after  the  bath; 
furthermore,  the  danger  of  contagion  was  re- 
duced to  a  minimum.  The  time  required  for 
a  shower  bath  is  much  less  than  that  required 
for  a  tub  bath,  for  the  force  of  the  water  aids 
in  the  removal  of  all  accumulated  matter;  be- 
sides this,  no  soiled  water  touches  the  body. 
Because  of  these  things,  a  shower  bath  is  more 
refreshing  and  cleansing. 

In  Los  Angeles  there  has  been  no  move- 
ment toward  the  establishment  of  Municipal 
Baths,  the  principal  reason  being  the  lack  of 
water,  but  with  the  coming  of  the  supply  from 
Owens  River,  drinking  fountains,  shower 
baths,  and  swimming  pools  will  no  doubt  be 
established  in  every  part  of  the  city.  Even  now 
in  the  Eighth  Ward  artesian  wells  produce  a 
fine  quality  of  sulphur  water  which  could  be 
utilized  and  made  healthful  as  well  as  cleansing. 
An  extensive  private-owned  bath  house  In  the 
western  part  of  the  city  is  thus  supplied  with 
health-giving  water.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  fur- 
nishes a  swimming  pool,  tubs  and  showers 
in  their  temporary  quarters,  and  will  have  more 
extensive  accommodations  in  their  new  build- 
ing. The  only  public  bath  in  the  city  was 


66  THE  BETTER  CITY 

established  five  years  ago  by  the  Bethlehem 
Institutional  Church  at  the  corner  of  Vignes 
and  Ducommun  Streets.  This  was  made 
possible  by  the  gift  of  a  prominent  philan- 
thropist. The  building  contains  a  plunge, 
thirty  by  sixty  feet,  three  tubs  for  women, 
four  tubs  for  men,  and  two  showers.  The 
charge  is  nominal — five  cents  for  soap  and 
towel,  or  for  trunks  and  towel  to  those  who 
use  the  plunge.  No  one  is  turned  away  for 
lack  of  money.  About  half  of  the  cities  hav- 
ing baths,  make  no  charge  whatever,  the  baths 
being  as  free  as  the  parks.  This  seems  to  be 
the  ideal  plan  wherever  possible.  An  average 
of  30,000  baths  are  given  in  the  Bethlehem 
Baths  each  year.  This  institution  has  just 
completed  a  new  bath  house  at  Railroad  and 
N.  Main  Streets.  This  has  four  tubs  for  men, 
four  for  women,  and  twelve  shower  baths. 
There  are  2,500  men  working  in  the  factories 
and  foundries  within  three  minutes'  walk  of 
this  place,  and  as  there  have  never  been  public 
bathing  facilities  in  that  part  of  the  city,  it  will 
prove  a  great  boon  to  those  toil-begrimed  men. 
A  comparatively  new  movement  is  the  in- 
troduction of  baths  into  public  school  houses. 
Boston,  New  York  and  many  other  cities  have 
adopted  the  school  bath,  reporting  a  marked 
improvement  in  the  general  health  of  the  chil- 
dren and  a  resultant  alertness  as  well.  The 
city  of  Gottingen,  Hanover,  Germany,  was  the 
first  to  introduce  the  school  bath,  and  Tolman's 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  67 

report  on  public  baths  gives  the  method  in 
use,  and  the  results:  "The  baths  were  ready 
for  use  in  1885.  No  compulsion  was  used,  and 
at  first  only  a  few  children  went  down,  but 
after  two  months,  about  seventy-five  per  cent 
took  part  in  the  bathing.  Each  scholar  who 
wishes,  receives  a  bath  once  a  fortnight,  on  one 
of  the  four  full  days  when  school  is  open.  The 
class  which  bathes  studies  some  lesson  which 
does  not  require  the  presence  of  the  whole 
class.  From  six  to  nine  children,  according 
to  size,  go  down  at  once,  and  when  they  have 
had  time  to  undress,  a  second  set  are  sent 
down.  The  first  step  under  the  douches,  two 
or  three  under  each  douche,  and  when  they 
have  bathed,  the  others  are  ready  to  take  their 
places.  Thus  the  douches  are  kept  in  use,  and 
the  time  occupied  is  comparatively  small — a 
class  of  fifty-one  boys  bathing  in  fifty  minutes. 
Girls  and  younger  children  take  a  considerably 
longer  time.  The  disturbance  of  lessons  is 
not  so  great  as  was  feared.  Only  a  few  chil- 
dren are  absent  at  any  one  time,  and  these  can 
be  easily  controlled — the  boys  by  the  janitor, 
and  the  girls  by  the  janitress. 

"A  towel  is  brought  by  each  bather,  whilst 
bathing  caps  and  petticoats  are  supplied  to 
the  larger  girls.  Precaution  is  taken  to  avoid 
cold  immediately  after  bathing.  The  children 
go  back  to  warmed  classrooms  and  cool  off 
gradually,  no  bathing  being  allowed  within 
half  an  hour  before  school  closes. 


68  THE  BETTER   CITY 

'The  quickness  and  willingness  to  learn  after 
bathing;  the  education  of  the  sense  of  cleanli- 
ness; the  futherance  of  the  health  of  the  chil- 
dren, are  such  important  and  real  results  of  this 
arrangement,'  says  School  Director  Personn, 
'that  I  cannot  but  express  to  the  city  the  wish 
that,  if  possible,  similar  bathing  establishments 
might  be  introduced  into  other  public  schools.' 

"Already  it  has  been  found  that  parents  send 
cleaner  and  tidier  children  to  the  handsome 
new  school  buildings;  now  their  pride  makes 
them  anxious  that  neither  the  janitress  nor 
their  fellow  scholars  should  see  their  ragged  or 
dirty  underclothing.  There  are  few  families 
so  lost  to  better  feelings  that  this  has  no  effect 
upon  them,  and  in  those  where  drink  has 
driven  the  sense  of  honor  away,  charity  must 
give  clothes  to  the  poor  children." 

In  this  city  three .  years  ago,  the  principal 
of  the  Amelia  Street  School  secured  permis- 
sion, after  some  opposition,  to  place  a  tub  in 
one  of  the  out-buildings.  This  has  been  used 
in  a  similar  manner  to  those  baths  just  de- 
scribed. There  are  so  many  children  not  hav- 
ing bathing  facilities  in  their  home,  that  this 
has  been  well  patronized  from  the  beginning, 
and  it  is  regarded  by  the  School  Board  as  a 
successful  innovation.  Two  other  schools 
have  established  baths — the  Utah  Street  and 
the  Castellar  Street  Schools,  both  of  which  are 
in  the  foreign  districts. 

Another    movement    for    civic    betterment 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  69 

which  has  not  yet  been  recognized  as  a  neces- 
sity in  this  city  is  the  establishment  of  Public 
Comfort  Stations,  giving  The  Public,  use  of 
lavatories,  urinals  and  toilets.  The  existing 
coffee  clubs  furnish  such  accommodations ;  the 
hotels  give  them,  to  those  who  are  as  well 
dressed  as  their  patrons,  and  many  stores  have 
special  retiring  rooms  for  women ;  but  other- 
wise the  saloons  offer  the  only  conveniences 
for  the  average  man  of  the  street.  The  pat- 
ronage of  the  saloon  is  increased  greatly  in 
return  for  the  use  of  these  facilities.  Most 
men  who  use  them  spend  money  over  the  bar, 
or  they  meet  with  other  men  who  treat  them, 
thus  forming  oftentimes  the  beginnings  of  a 
debauch.  Temperance  workers  might  well 
turn  their  attention  to  this  movement  as  an 
essential  factor  in  the  promotion  of  better  mor- 
als. On  the  Continent  one  meets  with  these 
conveniences  every  five  or  six  blocks ;  in  Paris 
they  are  sometimes  so  noticeable  as  to  offend 
public  decency.  Their  obtrusiveness  is  rem- 
edied in  this  country  by  building  them  beneath 
the  street,  or  by  constructing  them  in  the  shape 
of  artistic  chalets  at  the  junctions  of  streets. 
In  Europe  each  station  has  its  attendant  who 
keeps  everything  scrupulously  clean.  The 
urinals  are  always  free  to  the  public,  and 
usually  one  toilet.  For  the  other  toilets  and 
for  the  use  of  soap  and  towels  for  the  lava- 
tories, five  cents  is  usually  charged. 

Well-kept  Public  Comfort  Stations  serve  as 


70  THE  BETTER  CITY 

powerful  assistants  to  the  Board  of  Health— 
"Examples  of  what  can  be  done  to  render  such 
structures  comfortable  and  inoffensive,  intro- 
ducing among  the  lower  class  habits  of  self- 
respect  and  cleanliness  that  will  improve  the 
condition  of  the  crowded  quarters." 

Four  sites  naturally  suggest  themselves  for 
the  location  of  underground  stations.  One  of 
these  is  at  the  junction  of  Spring  and  Main 
Streets,  where  the  drinking  fountain  is  lo- 
cated. Built  underground,  nicely  tiled  and 
ventilated,  it  could  have  above  ground  an  ar- 
tistic fountain.  Such  an  arrangement  would 
not  interfere  with  the  sewer  pipes  below  the 
surface  or  with  the  traffic  above.  This  will 
be  a  congested  spot  when  the  new  post-office  is 
completed.  Another  could  be  placed  under- 
ground in  the  little  City  Hall  Park  on  Broad- 
way, and  not  interfere  at  all  with  the  plants 
or  flowers.  The  third  should  replace  the  present 
unsatisfactory  toilet  in  the  Sixth  Street  Park, 
being  built  either  underground,  or  as  a  neatly 
shaped  chalet,  painted  in  colors  harmonious 
with  the  foliage.  The  south  junction  of  Spring 
and  Main  Streets  suggests  itself  as  the  site 
for  the  fourth  underground  station.  Certain 
cities  have  erected  chalets  for  ladies,  with  a 
notion  store  in  front,  thus  making  it  possible 
for  ladies  to  enter  without  embarrassment,  as 
the  entrance  is  always  through  the  shops.  Los 
Angeles  ought  not  to  be  behind  in  this  world- 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  71 

wide  movement  for  the  comfort  and  welfare  of 
its  citizens. 

Housing  conditions  in  Los  Angeles  are  just 
beginning  to  receive  attention.  As  the  Greater 
City  comes  nearer  to  its  realization,  the  leaders 
in  social  thought  are  more  and  more  deter- 
mined that  it  shall  be  a  city  of  homes,  and 
therefore  a  city  without  slums.  Instead  of  the 
pent-up  millions  in  other  cities,  that  from  ne- 
cessity or  choice  know  only  a  contracted  in- 
door existence,  here  will  be  found  only  healthy, 
happy  families,  scattered  over  a  vast  area; 
twenty-five  persons  to  the  acre,  rather  than 
1,000  as  in  the  tenement  districts  of  our  large 
cities.  No  one  who  is  familiar  with  even  the 
model  tenement  will  ever  desire  to  see  it  estab- 
lished in  this  city.  New  York  with  its  sea-girt 
land,  vast  population,  and  lack  of  rapid  transit, 
must  needs  live  high  up  in  the  air,  in  dark 
contracted  rooms,  with  scarcity  of  light  and 
sunshine;  but  Los  Angeles,  with  its  vast 
stretches  of  hill  and  valley,  of  plain  and  sea- 
shore, every  acre  of  which  would  furnish  a 
homesite  unequaled  elsewhere,  offers  freer  and 
happier  conditions. 

There  are  no  slums  in  Los  Angeles  in  the 
sense  that  a  slum  is  a  vicious  congested  dis- 
trict, for  one  must  always  distinguish  between 
districts  filled  with  working  men  and  their 
families,  and  those  filled  with  vicious  immoral 
characters.  There  are  slum  people  in  Los  An- 
geles, but  no  one  district  where  they  are  cen- 


72  THE  BETTER  CITY 

tered.  For  the  most  part  the  poor  live  in 
single  cottages,  with  dividing  fences  and  flow- 
ers in  the  front  yard,  and  oftentimes  with 
vegetables  in  the  back  yard.  Even  in  the  most 
congested  districts  children  can  be  kept  within 
the  yard,  if  so  desired.  Homes  for  the  people ; 
pure  hearts  for  pure  hearth  stones,  are  the 
mottoes  for  a  city  like  this. 

Sonoratown,  as  the  old  pueblo  is  called,  has 
still  a  remnant  of  its  original  Mexican  dwellers 
in  adobe  houses,  crowded  by  the  incoming 
Italians,  Slavonians  and  Syrians.  For  these 
newcomers,  one-story  shacks  were  built  in  the 
rear  of  the  old  Mexican  houses.  As  might  be 
expected,  these  courts,  as  they  were  called, 
soon  became  as  vicious  as  the  tenement  con- 
ditions in  Eastern  cities,  save  that  here  fresh 
air  and  out-door  life  could  be  had  the  year 
around.  The  new  housing  ordinance  has  com- 
pelled the  landlords  owning  these  courts  to 
bring  them  up  to  a  higher  degree  of  sanitary 
efficiency. 

The  coming  of  the  Russians  in  large  num- 
bers to  this  city  caused  for  a  time  much  un- 
healthy crowding,  with  several  families  in 
houses  intended  for  only  one  family,  but  these 
people  are  industrious  and  thrifty,  and  are  now 
buying  houses  of  their  own. 

The  worst  congestion  that  existed  in  the  city 
was  found  on  Utah  Street,  just  east  of  the 
river,  where  those  Mexicans  lived  who  were 
brought  in  from  Mexico  to  work  on  the  trolley 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  73 

lines.  The  land  in  that  locality  was  divided 
into  tiny  lots  which  were  rented  for  one  or 
two  dollars  a  month.  On  each  of  these  lots 
was  built  a  shack  of  hammered-out  cans,  old 
boxes,  or  burlap,  with  no  yard  space  nor  sani- 
tary appliances  of  any  sort.  The  toilets  were 
of  earth,  and  were  used  in  common.  In  order 
to  study  this  condition,  a  Housing  Commission 
was  appointed  by  the  Mayor,  composed  of 
prominent  social  workers,  which  succeeded  in 
having  the  City  Council  pass  the  ordinance 
just  referred  to.  Defining  a  house  court  as  a 
parcel  or  area  of  land  on  which  are  grouped 
houses  or  habitations,  used  or  designed  for  the 
occupancy  of  families,  and  upon  which  parcel 
or  area,  the  vacant  or  unoccupied  property 
thereof,  surrounding  or  abutting,  is  intended 
for  common  use  by  the  inhabitants  thereof,  the 
ordinance  demands  that  at  least  thirty  per  cent 
of  the  house  court  shall  remain  unoccupied. 
Houses  must  be  made  of  substantial  building 
material,  suitable  for  permanent  construction; 
earth  floors  are  not  permitted ;  there  must  be  a 
space  of  seven  feet  between  the  floor  and  the 
ceiling;  and  there  must  be  windows  for  venti- 
lation, equal  to  ten  per  cent  of  floor  space. 
Separate  toilet  facilities  must  be  maintained 
for  men  and  women,  with  no  less  than  one 
toilet  for  every  ten  persons.  Hydrants  must 
be  provided  with  hoppers  and  drains,  and  no 
less  than  one  for  every  three  persons  in  court. 
The  surface  and  open  spaces  in  the  court  must 


74  THE  BETTER  CITY 

be  covered  with  sand,  or  gravel,  or  asphaltum. 
In  several  instances  the  landlords,  rather 
than  submit  to  the  expense  of  renovating  the 
houses  and  repairing  the  courts,  have  evicted 
their  tenants.  This  is  especially  true  on  Utah 
Street,  where  nearly  all  the  courts  were  cleaned 
out. 

Meanwhile  the  laying  out  of  new  subdi- 
visions far  out  beyond  the  city  limits,  makes 
cheap  and  desirable  home  sites,  obtainable  for 
a  multitude  of  working  men,  where  they  are 
able  to  build  cheap  bungalows  or  California 
houses,  or  at  least  to  erect  tents.  "The  Fam- 
ily Unit,"  the  desire  of  the  sociologist,  can  be 
recovered,  when  by  rapid  transit,  giving  a  fare 
of  from  five  to  seven  cents  for  a  thirty  minutes' 
ride,  the  working  man  can  be  induced  to  lo- 
cate with  his  family  far  from  the  noisy  city. 
No  work  for  civic  betterment  is  worth  more 
than  this. 

In  this  Beautiful  and  Better  City  that  is  to 
be,  the  men  of  wealth  will  do  much  toward 
bringing  about  the  desired  results.  It  is  a 
question  in  these  days,  how  much  a  man's 
wealth  is  really  private  wealth.  Did  the  owner 
create  it?  Is  it  the  result  of  his  brain  power 
or  the  work  of  his  hands  alone?  Wealth  is 
social,  and  ought  to  be  thought  of  more  as  com- 
mon wealth.  And  as  men  come  to  realize  this, 
they  will  gladly  give  more  and  more  to  the 
common  good.  Parks  and  playgrounds  will  be 
donated;  fountains  and  monuments  built; 


CIVIC  BETTERMENT  75 

music  halls  established;  settlement  houses 
erected;  schools  and  colleges  endowed;  insti- 
tutions of  all  kinds  will  be  planned  for  the 
people's  health  and  enjoyment.  It  is  a  hope- 
ful sign  that  in  the  present  day,  as  never  be- 
fore, church  and  social  workers,  Captains  of 
Industry  and  Knights  of  Labor,  are  all  inter- 
ested in  the  building  of  the  Better  City. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
SOCIAL  CENTERS 

The  modern  city  has  many  customs  as  well 
as  costumes  brought  into  it  from  lands  across 
the  sea.  For  want  of  a  common  language  and 
of  common  ideals  of  government,  the  New 
England  town  meeting  could  not  now  be  made 
the  social  and  political  center  which  it  was  of 
old.  Nor  can  the  Church  be  the  unifying  force 
which  it  was  in  the  day  of  the  old  white  meet- 
ing house  on  the  green,  for  in  the  modern  un- 
American  city,  the  Church  is  divisive  rather 
than  unitive.  A  common  religion  has  not  yet 
been  found  for  the  Roman  and  Greek  Church ; 
for  Jew,  Armenian,  Buddhists,  Confucianists, 
Mohammedans,  and  the  innumerable  sects  of 
a  divided  Protestantism.  They  are  all  God's 
children;  yet  the  problem  is  to  teach  them  to 
live  and  walk  together  as  brethren.  This  is 
indeed  a  new  world.  In  old  Jerusalem,  the 
people  live  today  as  in  the  time  of  Christ.  In 
the  new  Jerusalem  which  is  to  arise  in  our 
midst,  the  original  type  of  Hebrew,  Slav,  Teu- 
ton, Scandinavian,  Briton,  Latin,  and  Asiatic, 
will  be  lost  and  in  their  places  will  be  the 
American.  A  new  type  in  language,  dress,  so- 
cial intelligence  and  spiritual  ideals  will  de- 
velop. The  world  at  large  is  waiting  the  evo- 


SOCIAL   CENTERS  77 

lution  of  the  American,  with  the  conviction 
that  when  he  is  developed,  he  will  be  the 
noblest  work  of  God.  But  no  man  can  sit 
idly  by  and  watch  the  making  of  the  Ameri- 
can, for  he  feels  that  he  himself  is  a  factor,  and 
therefore  a  part  of  the  process.  A  new  oc- 
cupation is  open  to  those  whose  hearts  are 
stirred  by  the  calls  of  humanity  and  by  the 
thought  of  a  larger  brotherhood.  To  join  with 
others  in  the  effort  to  bring  together  the  di- 
vided units  of  a  cosmopolitan  city,  is  an  effort 
large  enough  for  any  man. 

Each  city  has  its  own  foreign  problem  to 
deal  with,  one  nationality  usually  predominat- 
ing. The  story  of  the  effort  to  make  Los  An- 
geles an  American  city  and  a  better  city  should 
be  of  interest  to  social  workers  in  other  lo- 
calities. 

Long  before  the  American  flag  floated  over 
the  hilltop  above  this  pueblo,  this  section  was 
peopled  by  those  from  afar,  whose  tongue  was 
musical  and  whose  attire  was  picturesque. 
Their  descendants  today  are  proud  to  be 
known  as  the  real  Californians.  Oftentimes 
poor  because  robbed  of  their  lands,  they  have 
either  been  absorbed  by  the  new  life,  or  remain 
proud  of  name  and  title — a  reminder  of  the 
early  days  of  Alta  California.  Do  not  make 
the  mistake  of  calling  them  Mexicans;  rather 
call  them  Spanish  or  Californians.  Not  until 
recent  years  has  there  been  an  influx  of  Mexi- 
cans from  our  sister  republic  on  the  south. 
6 


78  THE  BETTER  CITY 

With  the  trolley  building  came  the  need  for 
cheap  labor  and  the  bringing  in  of  hundreds 
of  laborers  with  their  families.  These  Mexi- 
cans being  very  poor  and  accustomed  to  a  bare 
life  in  their  own  land,  have  chosen  to  live  in 
shacks  closely  crowded  together,  thus  forming 
the  city's  first  housing  problem.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  quick  use  of  the  knife  after 
drinking  cheap  wine,  they  are  a  peaceable,  hard- 
working people,  some  saving  their  money  and 
going  back  to  Mexico  with  what  seems  to  them 
to  be  a  small  fortune.  Many  of  the  young 
men  and  women  have  entered  into  the  night 
schools  of  the  different  social  centers  and  are 
becoming  educated  and  refined.  By  nature 
musical,  they  have  formed  bands  and  orches- 
tras. Among  them,  and  especially  among  the 
Californians,  are  talented  singers,  who  at  so- 
cial gatherings,  delight  the  people  with  "La 
Paloma"  and  other  beautiful  Spanish  songs. 
Some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Californians  are 
reviving  the  old-time  Spanish  dances,  thus 
adding  much  to  popular  entertainments.  In 
fact,  Los  Angeles,  with  its  Spanish  life  left 
out,  would  lose  much  of  its  charm.  While 
the  Church  and  settlement  are  aiding  much  in 
the  development  of  these  laborers,  the  greatest 
transforming  power  at  work  upon  them  is  as 
with  all  other  foreigners,  the  public  school. 
This  is  the  real  social  center — a  common  meet- 
ing ground  for  the  races,  giving  inspiration  and 
aspiration  to  thousands.  Go  into  the  school- 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  .        79 

rooms  in  Los  Angeles  set  aside  for  non- 
English  speaking  children  and  watch  the 
gradual  change  in  dress,  in  step,  in  eye  and 
voice.  Receiving  daily  higher  ethical  stand- 
ards, they  become  little  missionaries  for  good 
in  their  own  home.  Three  of  the  city  schools 
are  largely  filled  with  foreigners,  or  rather 
with  future  Americans. 

Along  with  the  Mexicans  came  the  people 
of  sunny  Italy.  Beside  common  laborers, 
large  numbers  of  these  people  have  entered 
into  the  business  life  of  the  city  and  have  be- 
come very  successful.  While  speaking  of 
themselves  as  the  "Italian  Colony,"  they  are 
living  more  and  more  in  scattered  homes 
throughout  the  city,  and  are  quickly  becoming 
Americanized.  This  is  also  the  way  in  which 
the  very  industrious  Germans  and  Scandinavi- 
ans are  becoming  an  integral  part  of  the  city. 
Many  Jewish  people  are  prominent  in  com- 
mercial lines,  and  are  leaders  in  ethical  move- 
ments for  the  good  of  the  city.  There  are  no 
Hebrews  in  extreme  poverty.  With  a  little 
start,  every  newcomer  is  able  to  support  him- 
self in  some  small  business  without  falling  be- 
neath the  line  of  self-support  into  pauperism. 
The  Slavonians  are  hard  workers  with  pick  and 
shovel,  and  show  a  capacity  for  receiving 
American  ideas,  learning  a  little  business  and 
a  little  English,  but  always  reminding  one  of 
the  Old  World. 

Five  years  ago  there  came  a  young  Russian 


80  THE  BETTER  CITY 

from  the  Trans-Caucasus  to  Russian  friends  in 
Canada.  Drifting  down  to  Los  Angeles,  he 
was  so  delighted  with  the  country  that  he 
wrote  back  to  his  people  to  come  thither  at 
once.  They  belonged  to  a  religious  sect  known 
as  the  "Brotherhood  of  Spiritual  Christians." 
They  were  sober,  industrious  "mujiks"  or 
farmers,  yet  persecuted  as  only  Russia  knows 
how  to  persecute  her  political  and  religious 
dissenters.  Like  Tolstoi,  these  men  were  non- 
resistants.  When  the  Czar  ordered  them  to 
fight  the  Japanese,  they  refused,  and  to  escape 
the  punishment  which  would  have  been  theirs 
as  a  penalty  for  their  refusal,  they  began  to 
steal  out  of  Russia,  and  to  start  on  their  long 
journey  overland  through  Germany  and  across 
the  waters,  carrying  with  them  their  beloved 
"samovar"  and  a  big  bundle  of  clothes.  Many 
hundreds  of  these  people  have  come  to  this 
city,  hoping  to  obtain  land,  and  to  bring  over 
the  entire  25,000  belonging  to  their  brother- 
hood. Two  attempts  at  colonizing  have  been 
made — one  in  Hawaii  and  one  in  Lower  Cali- 
fornia, but  both  have  proved  partial  failures. 
Having  secured  work  in  the  lumber  yards  and 
in  factories  at  good  wages,  the  majority  will 
become  a  part  of  the  city  life  and  forget  that 
they  ever  were  foreigners.  All  of  the  young 
men  have  adopted  American  clothes,  and  some 
of  the  older  ones  also,  except  on  Sunday,  when 
they  go  to  their  meeting  clothed  in  the  Russian 
peasant's  garb.  The  women  are  slow  to 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  81 

change,  and  with  their  elaborately  embroid- 
ered, many-colored  gowns,  look  very  pictur- 
esque as  they  walk  in  groups  to  their  Sun- 
day service.  Through  the  influence  of  the 
Bethlehem  Night  Schools,  many  of  the  young 
men  are  quite  Americanized,  and  they  declare 
that  they  are  "no  longer  Paruski,  but  Amer- 
icanski."  As  the  years  go  by,  these  men  will 
become  the  political  leaders  of  their  brethren. 

Many  Greek  young  men  also  have  come  to 
this  city  from  Athens,  and  have  entered  into 
business.  Being  separated  from  their  families 
at  first,  as  soon  as  they  make  sufficient  money, 
they  send  for  their  relatives  in  Greece,  and 
thus  the  colony  is  growing  constantly  larger 
and  more  permanent. 

No  tourist  ever  leaves  the  city  without  a 
visit  to  Chinatown.  A  few  years  ago  there 
were  many  thousand  Celestials  packed  away 
in  their  narrow  quarters,  but  owing  to  the 
strict  enforcement  of  the  Exclusion  Law,  there 
has  in  recent  years  been  a  steady  decrease  in 
numbers,  up  to  the  time  when  the  Chinatown 
in  San  Francisco  was  wiped  out,  and  many  of 
its  inhabitants  joined  the  stream  of  refugees 
who  came  hither  to  start  their  life  anew.  Sev- 
eral church  missions  1  ive  labored  among  these 
people,  faithfully  Christianizing  them,  and 
helping  them  to  better  living.  Without 
thought  or  chance  of  becoming  Americans, 
they  have  unconsciously  prepared  themselves 
as  leaders  for  the  new  China  across  the  sea, 


82  THE  BETTER  CITY 

in  the  day  of  her  fast  approaching  awakening. 
While  many  of  the  children  are  in  the  public 
schools  and  are  rapidly  becoming  American- 
ized, they  also  receive  training  in  a  Chinese 
school,  taught  by  a  teacher  brought  direct  from 
Canton.  A  few  of  the  second  generation, 
whose  parents  were  taught  in  the  California 
schools  and  who  are  themselves  registered 
voters,  look  and  act  so  much  like  Americans 
that  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  if  the  Chinese 
had  come  with  the  intention  of  staying  in  this 
country,  they  might  easily  have  added  their 
part  to  the  citizenship  of  this  great  nation. 

During  the  summer  months,  there  is  a  Jap- 
anese population  in  this  city  of  3,000,  while  in 
winter  there  are  over  5,000.  At  the  celebration 
of  the  Emperor's  birthday,  several  thousand 
joined  in  the  shout  of  "Banzai" — "May  he  live 
a  thousand  years."  In  this  large  crowd  there 
was  not  to  be  seen  a  single  Japanese  garment 
worn  by  either  man  or  woman.  The  Japanese 
are  always  well  dressed,  cleanly  and  orderly. 
Many  work  in  families  that  they  may  have  the 
opportunity  of  attending  the  public  or  night 
schools.  Unlike  the  Chinese,  they  do  not  live 
close  together  in  colonies,  but  scatter  about  the 
city  in  boarding  houses  kept  by  their  own  peo- 
ple. There  are  several  missions  and  churches 
among  them,  and  one  Buddhist  temple.  A  few 
are  engaged  in  banking  and  commercial  enter- 
prises, but  the  majority  work  in  ordinary  labor 
on  the  ranches  and  on  the  railroad.  Recently 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  83 

many  have  brought  their  families  to  this  coun- 
try, buying  land  and  settling  down  as  though 
they  intended  to  remain  for  life.  The  Associa- 
tion of  Japanese  Christians  is  a  strong  factor 
in  the  moral  and  ethical  development  of  these 
young  men  so  far  away  from  home  and  ex- 
posed to  temptations  on  every  hand. 

Because  there  is  no  serious  housing  problem 
and  little  grinding  poverty,  social  workers  can 
devote  more  time  to  the  real  things  that  make 
for  the  larger  life.  There  are  four  centers  of 
life  that  need  developing:  The  family  center, 
the  social  center,  the  school  center,  and  the 
ethical  or  spiritual  center.  Of  this  last,  we 
wish  to  treat  more  fully  in  another  chapter, 
an  inspirational  center  being  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  the  full  rounded  life  of  any  com- 
munity. Without  direct  ethical  or  spiritual 
teaching,  many  of  our  modern  methods  may 
have  no  more  permanent  uplift  than  did  the 
baths  or  the  games  of  Rome,  or  the  debates  on 
the  Acropolis  of  Athens. 

Social  and  religious  workers  have  always 
maintained  that  the  development  of  the  family 
center  is  the  most  important.  Grant  perfect 
family  life  and  the  majority  of  the  philan- 
thropic and  reformatory  institutions  would 
close  their  doors.  To  the  end  of  perfecting 
family  life,  a  multitude  of  agencies  are  always 
at  work — the  Church,  the  School,  the  Court, 
the  Settlement,  Organized  Charity,  Municipal, 
County  and  State  Boards,  as  well  as  Philan- 


84  THE  BETTER  CITY 

thropic  Societies.  Owing  to  the  influx  of  for- 
eigners with  low  ideals  of  family  life,  the 
problem  in  the  crowded  tenements  is  made 
exceedingly  difficult.  Yet  in  all  the  cities  there 
is  a  noticeable  improvement  in  the  home  life 
of  the  people.  The  social  center  has  in  the  last 
score  of  years  become  a  great  factor  in  the 
betterment  of  the  conditions  under  which  men 
live.  Because  of  the  rapid  growth  of  cities  in 
the  last  half  century,  resulting  from  the  de- 
velopment of  industrialism  and  the  importa- 
tion of  alien  workers,  there  has  developed  a 
condition  of  slum  life  which  is  so  interwoven 
with  political  corruption  that  the  Church  and 
organized  charity  hardly  knows  how  to  cope 
with  it.  They  see  the  sorrow,  the  suffering 
and  the  sin,  and  try  to  rescue  the  individual, 
but  they  do  not  fully  understand  the  causes 
which  are  making  for  social  corruption,  and 
which  result  in  the  degeneration  of  whole 
neighborhoods. 

The  great  Apostle  of  Social  Study  and  So- 
cial Help — the  John  the  Baptist  of  all  new 
social  movements — was  Arnold  Toynbee,  a 
young  Oxford  man,  who,  stirred  by  a  passion 
for  the  better  social  order,  took  up  a  resi- 
dence in  the  midst  of  the  terrible  degradation 
of  Whitechapel.  A  student  of  conditions,  a 
sympathetic  friend,  he  lived  the  loving  life  in 
the  midst  of  the  unlovely.  In  a  few  short 
years  he  wore  himself  out  in  the  service  of 
mankind,  yet  the  world  has  been  made  richer 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  85 

by  far,  by  that  short  life,  than  it  ever  has  been 
by  any  Captain  of  Industry  who  has  merely 
amassed  a  fortune.  This  life  gave  the  initial 
impulse  to  the  modern  movement  of  the  so- 
cial settlements.  The  great  Toynbee  Hall  in 
Whitechapel  is  its  fitting  memorial,  together 
with  the  ever-increasing  number  of  settle- 
ments in  the  hearts  of  the  cities  of  the  world. 

Actuated  by  the  same  noble  purpose  that 
stirred  the  heart  of  Toynbee,  many  of  the 
world's  choicest  scholars,  and  large-hearted 
men  and  women,  have  chosen  to  live  where 
they  saw  the  greatest  need,  thus  forming  so- 
cial centers  for  the  "unification  of  neighbor- 
hood life,  laboratory  work  for  the  study  and 
analysis  of  social  and  industrial  problems,  and 
as  a  common  meeting  place  for  mutual  inter- 
pretation of  widely  differing  ideals,  economic 
conditions  and  standards  of  living." 

A  universal  definition  of  the  Social  Settle- 
ment has  never  been  formulated.  Everett  P. 
Wheeler  gives  as  its  fundamental  idea,  the 
following:  "It  is  a  home  in  an  industrial  cen- 
ter, where  employer  and  employed,  educated 
and  uneducated,  rich  and  poor,  can  meet  on 
friendly  terms;  come  to  an  understanding  of 
the  human  element  that  vitalizes  them  all,  and 
so  remove  the  narrow  prejudice  that  igno- 
rance begets  and  that  keeps  men  asunder. 
The  Settlement  has  for  its  fundamental  basis 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood 
of  man.  These  are  eternal."  As  Dr.  Graham 


86  THE  BETTER  CITY 

Taylor  puts  it,  "we  who  at  the  Chicago  Com- 
mons share  the  common  lot,  choose  to  live 
for  our  own  and  others'  sake,  where  we  seem  to 
be  the  most  needed,  rather  than  where  the 
neighborhood  seems  to  offer  the  most  social 
privilege  or  prestige.  We  are  here  to  be  all 
we  can  to  the  people  and  to  receive  all  they 
are  to  us  as  friends  and  neighbors.  We  as- 
sume the  full  obligations  and  claim  all  the 
rights  of  citizenship  in  a  community  with 
whose  interests  we  identify  ourselves,  whose 
conditions  we  share,  and  for  whose  home,  hap- 
piness, political  freedom  and  progress,  we  try 
to  do  our  part." 

The  settlement  workers  are  not  missionaries 
going  down  to  the  people  to  lift  them  up,  but 
rather  being  just  "folks,"  living  the  simple  life 
of  friendship  and  neighborliness.  Their  motto 
is — each  for  all,  and  all  for  each.  Grant  the 
spirit  of  service,  and  the  development  is  nat- 
ural. Given  the  man  or  woman  with  the  spirit 
of  the  Nazarene,  and  two  rooms  in  a  tenement 
may  be  a  settlement.  Nor  will  it  be  long  until 
about  this  center  neighbors  will  meet  for  self- 
improvement  and  mutual  benefit.  Then  a 
larger  building  will  be  found  necessary;  soon 
mothers'  meetings,  making  for  the  betterment 
of  home  life,  will  be  held ;  men's  clubs  for  the 
creation  of  better  citizens  and  for  the  over- 
throw of  boss  rule,  and  the  purification  of  poli- 
tics will  be  organized;  boys'  and  girls'  clubs 
will  be  formed  to  give  an  object  in  life  and  af- 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  87 

ford  a  normal  outlet  to  childhood's  energies, 
thus  breaking  the  power  of  the  street  gang, 
and  making  a  rallying  center  for  all  that  up- 
lifts and  refines.  The  effect  upon  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood  will  be  far  reaching,  yet 
even  greater  will  be  the  reflex  influence  upon 
the  educated  and  the  well-to-do  classes  in  the 
community.  It  will  result  in  the  rousing  of 
the  social  conscience,  the  breaking  down  of 
social  barriers ;  it  will  also  give  an  enlarged 
idea  of  life  and  of  social  service ;  and  will  fur- 
nish an  opportunity  for  men  of  leisure  to  de- 
vote time  and  money  to  the  social  uplifting  of 
the  community  life. 

In  Los  Angeles  a  movement  of  this  kind  was 
started  thirteen  years  ago  by  a  group  of  college 
women,  students  of  sociology,  in  the  original 
city,  the  old  pueblo,  for  some  time  in  an  adobe 
house  of  the  old  type ;  finally  in  a  two-story 
house  containing  fourteen  rooms,  owned  by 
the  Settlement  Association,  and  located  at 
Castelar  and  Alpine  Streets.  The  various 
nationalities  have  there  a  common  meeting 
place.  The  Californian,  the  Mexican,  the 
Italian,  the  Syrian,  the  Slavonian,  who  consti- 
tute the  crowded  dwellers  of  the  neighborhood, 
know  they  are  welcome  at  this  house  at  any 
time.  The  boys  and  girls  have  been  reached 
through  the  various  clubs  and  classes;  the 
mothers,  through  the  sewing  clubs  and  cloth- 
ing departments;  the  men  through  the  night 
schools  and  entertainments.  This  settlement 


88  THE  BETTER  CITY 

is  unique  in  having  secured  the  first  district 
nurse  appointed  by  any  municipality,  and  at 
present  it  has  charge  of  three  nurses,  under  the 
pay  of  the  city.  They  are  devoting  their  entire 
time,  not  alone  to  the  neighborhood,  but  to 
the  public  schools  throughout  the  city,  and  re- 
sponding to  calls  throughout  the  city.  Direct- 
ing the  people  how  to  care  for  the  sick — pre- 
ventitive  treatment — rather  than  work  with 
cases,  is  the  special  function  of  the  District 
Nurse.  She  has  proven  a  great  help  to  the 
Health  Department,  by  giving  notice  of  the 
first  appearance  of  any  virulent  disease,  thus 
making  it  possible  to  check  contagion  and  to 
rob  the  County  Hospital  of  many  a  patient. 
The  members  of  this  Association  are  promi- 
nent in  the  work  of  civic  betterment — in  secur- 
ing better  housing  conditions,  in  advancing 
the  work  of  the  public  schools,  in  the  play- 
ground movement,  and  Juvenile  Court.  The 
Association  itself  is  a  fountain  of  good  works. 
Another  settlement  is  the  Brownson  House, 
on  Vignes  and  Jackson  Streets,  conducted  for 
several  years  by  a  number  of  prominent  Catho- 
lic young  women.  On  Sunday  they  hold  a 
morning  mass,  having  an  altar  in  the  Assem- 
bly Hall,  covered  at  other  times  by  a  screen. 
They  also  conduct  a  Sunday  School,  the  usual 
clubs  for  boys  and  girls,  hold  mothers'  meet- 
ings, and  furnish  literary  and  social  entertain- 
ments. They  have  recently  opened  a  day  nurs- 
ery on  Vignes  Street,  near  the  Brownson 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  &> 

House.  Their  broad  spirit  of  fellowship  and 
their  sense  of  the  larger  brotherhood  is  evi- 
denced by  their  readiness  to  cooperate  with  all 
who  are  working  for  the  common  good. 

The  cluster  of  institutions  known  as  Bethle- 
hem deserves  to  be  called  a  settlement,  for 
many  earnest  workers  have  resided  in  them 
for  years,  in  one  of  the  most  congested  dis- 
tricts in  the  city,  laboring  along  the  usual 
settlement  lines. 

Separate  groups  such  as  these  ought  to  be 
multiplied  in  this  growing  city,  yet  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  next  step  should  be  to  utilize 
as  social  centers  the  public  school  buildings 
with  their  grounds,  now  unused  outside  of 
school  hours.  This  movement  has  made  great 
headway  in  Eastern  cities  where  the  roofs  and 
basements  of  buildings  are  being  used  for 
public  playgrounds;  the  rooms  at  night  for 
reading  rooms,  and  study  rooms  where  back- 
ward pupils  may  receive  extra  help,  as  night 
schools  for  grown-ups,  or  as  halls  for  popular 
lectures  and  entertainments.  Belonging  to 
the  people,  they  ought  to  be  used  for  the 
public  good.  It  is  a  good  sign  to  see  the 
people  coming,  slowly,  to  possess  that  which  is 
their  own.  The  use  of  the  school  property  in 
summer  time  for  school  gardens  and  summer 
schools,  is  certainly  good  use  of  invested 
money.  The  Los  Angeles  schools  are  slowly 
working  toward  this  ideal.  Here  and  there 
the  borders  of  yards  are  planted  with  flowers 


90  THE  BETTER  CITY 

and  vegetables,  and  a  start  has  been  made  in 
the  use  of  outside  plots  for  garden  work.  The 
three  vacation  playgrounds  established  by  the 
Playground  Commission  have  been  taken  over 
for  the  school  term  by  the  schools  themselves. 
A  man  teacher  in  each  school  keeps  the  play- 
ground open  for  two  hours  after  school  each 
day,  and  on  Saturday  afternoons.  For  two 
years  one  of  the  schools  was  kept  open  in  the 
evenings  for  a  reading  room,  and  once  a  week 
lectures  and  entertainments  were  held  in  it 
for  the  parents  of  the  children.  The  neighbor- 
hood use  of  the  public  school  is  becoming  more 
and  more  recognized,  and  it  is  being  made  a 
social  and  a  recreational  as  well  as  an  educa- 
tional center. 

Three  years  ago  the  Amelia  Street  School 
introduced  a  bath  tub,  and  others  have  fol- 
lowed. The  number  of  school  nurses  has 
been  increased  and  all  are  more  than  kept 
busy.  Heads  have  been  cleansed,  contagious 
diseases  have  been  carefully  investigated, 
bruises  treated,  eyes  and  ears  examined  and 
instruction  given  in  hygiene  to  the  children. 
When  it  was  found  necessary,  the  help  of  a 
good  physician  has  been  advised,  and  the  treat- 
ment continued  at  home.  Absences  because 
of  illness  have  been  at  once  investigated,  and 
in  this  way  any  hidden  contagion  has  been 
discovered.  The  school  board  has  established 
probation,  truant  and  parental  schools,  with  a 
measure  of  medical  inspection. 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  91 

Movements  for  social  centers  are  not  con- 
fined to  settlements  or  schools.  In  New  York 
the  movement  for  establishing  Neighborhood 
Social  Halls  free  from  the  saloon  curse  and  the 
low  dance  hall,  has  resulted  in  the  building  of 
the  well-equipped  Clinton  Hall  in  the  Jewish 
Quarter.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  many  such 
halls  may  be  established  elsewhere,  giving 
clean  social  life  to  those  who  now  know  only 
bad  environment.  Since  the  opening  in  Bos- 
ton of  the  first  municipal  gymnasium  in  1897, 
it  has  been  so  largely  patronized  that  many 
more  have  been  built  in  other  parts  of  the 
city. 

The  most  unique  movement  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  social  centers  is  that  of  the  South 
Park  Commission  of  Chicago,  sometimes  called 
"Chicago's  ten-million-dollar  experiment  in  so- 
cial redemption."  This  gigantic  scheme  orig- 
inated in  the  dream  of  one  man  who  thought 
that  there  was  a  greater  social  need  than  could 
be  supplied  by  private  initiative.  He  gained 
his  point  after  much  effort,  by  having  ap- 
pointed a  Board  of  Commissioners,  with  power 
to  buy  small  plots  of  ground  in  the  congested 
districts  of  the  South  Side,  and  to  set  them 
apart  perpetually  for  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 
people.  In  the  dozen  or  more  parks  which 
have  been  secured,  there  are  large  playfields 
for  almost  every  kind  of  game ;  outdoor  gym- 
nasiums for  men  and  women,  swings,  teeters, 
children's  lawns,  sand  plots,  and  a  wading  pool 


92  THE  BETTER  CITY 

for  the  little  folks.  There  are  large,  enclosed 
swimming  tanks,  free  to  all,  indoor  gymna- 
siums, club  rooms  for  women,  men,  girls  and 
boys;  assembly  halls  which  can  be  used  by 
the  people  at  any  time,  the  only  restriction 
being  that  no  refreshments  be  brought  in — 
use  being  made  of  the  refectory  below.  This 
movement  for  large,  well-equipped  social  cen- 
ters will  surely  spread  to  other  cities.  The 
first  building  similar  to  these,  in  this  city,  is 
soon  to  be  built  in  the  Eighth  Ward. 

As  a  result  of  the  social  awakening,  new 
professions  are  coming  into  existence,  as  for 
instance,  that  of  the  Sanitary  Engineer.  His 
social  service  lies  in  the  direction  of  the 
work  of  sanitary  rehabilitation  after  great 
disasters,  like  that  at  Galveston  or  at  San 
Francisco,  the  elimination  of  mosquitos  and 
malaria,  and  the  suppression  of  such  epi- 
demics as  typhoid.  The  methods  used  are 
those  of  educating  the  public  in  simple  meth- 
ods of  protecting  themselves  against  disease, 
but  at  the  same  time  he  can  use  autocratically 
the  power  vested  in  health  laws,  to  burn 
houses,  sieze  schools  for  hospitals,  and  compel 
the  police  to  see  to  the  enforcement  of  sanitary 
regulations. 

There  is  a  demand  in  every  city  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Superintendent  of  Social 
Service — a  person  of  broad  education  and 
large  heart,  who  will  have  the  oversight  of  all 
municipal  social  centers ;  a  man  free  from  poli- 


SOCIAL  CENTERS  93 

tics,  who  will  conduct  a  social  museum  con- 
taining charts,  pictures,  designs,  or  printed 
matter,  all  of  the  world's  up-to-date  social 
plans,  with  an  exhibit  of  all  unsanitary  or 
debasing  conditions  in  the  city.  Such  an  effort 
would  be  a  great  aid  to  all  city  officials  in 
their  effort  to  do  their  best  for  their  constitu- 
ents. Los  Angeles  is  having  its  social  awaken- 
ing. May  it  take  its  place  in  the  vanguard 
of  progress,  adopting  the  most  approved  agen- 
cies, that  it  may  speedily  become  the  Better 
City. 


CHAPTER  V. 
WOMEN'S  WORK 

The  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the 
world.  Mother  is  not  only  a  word  of  sweet 
sound,  arousing  pleasant  memories;  it  stands 
for  the  creator  of  a  harmonious  household, 
from  which  radiates  blessed  influences.  In 
early  times  the  home  was  the  training  school 
for  the  moral,  mental  and  physical  develop- 
ment of  the  child.  Household  duties  furnished 
manual  training;  the  farm  or  the  forest  fur- 
nished the  playground;  the  social  life  of  the 
small  communities  seldom  stretched  beyond 
the  home.  Nearly  all  the  food  and  clothing 
was  provided  by  the  house-mother.  The 
school  taught  only  the  three  "R's."  In  a  word, 
the  home  was  the  social  unit  in  which  the 
entire  community  life  was  largely  expressed. 

Industrial  life  has  changed  all  this  arcadian 
simplicity,  with  the  result  that  in  the  great 
centers  of  population  we  have  great  conges- 
tion, people  being  crowded  closely  together  in 
flats,  in  tenement  houses  and  in  cottages. 
Prepared  foods  and  canned  goods  have  made 
much  cooking  unnecessary.  There  are  no 
chores  for  the  children  to  do  and  the  play- 
ground is  the  street.  Clothing  is  ready  made, 
and  the  laundry  has  banished  the  wash  tub. 


WOMEN'S  WORK  95 

Adapting  itself  to  changed  conditions,  the 
school  is  reaching  out  after  the  child  and  doing 
for  it  much  of  the  work  of  care  taking  that 
was  once  done  by  the  mother.  The  Day 
Nursery  and  Kindergarten  give  the  child  its 
start.  The  manual  training,  cooking  and  sew- 
ing schools,  school  gardens,  and  vacation 
schools,  take  the  child  in  hand  and  help  him 
to  apply  book  knowledge  to  practical  life.  The 
dentist,  physician,  and  school  nurse  look  after 
his  physical  well-being.  The  school  yards  and 
the  school  buildings  furnish  his  playground, 
and  these  privileges  he  is  coming  to  share  with 
the  entire  community.  A  recent  educational 
magazine  prophesies  in  a  recent  issue  as  fol- 
lows :  "In  the  future  the  regular  public  school 
will  probably  take  the  child  from  morning  un- 
til the.  latter  part  of  the  afternoon.  Noon 
meals  will  be  served,  and  the  study  periods 
will  be  interspersed  with  work  and  play  ap- 
propriate to  the  grade  and  age  of  the  child. 
The  school  will  become  a  workshop  and  a 
playground,  as  well  as  a  place  for  study  and 
reading  books." 

The  house-mother  of  the  present  day  re- 
lieved from  many  of  the  cares  of  former  times 
is  now  interested  in  many  things  outside  of 
home  and  church.  Influenced  by  the  broader 
education  of  her  day,  she  is  turning  her  atten- 
tion to  national,  state,  municipal  and  educa- 
tional affairs.  She  is  asking,  and  in  some 
states  receiving,  the  ballot;  and  in  civic  mat- 


96  THE  BETTER  CITY 

ters  she  has  already  become  a  power  to  be 
reckoned  with.  Whatever  touches  the  health 
or  morals  of  the  community  is  of  interest  to 
her  because  she  is  a  woman.  As  she  knows 
how  to  make  the  home  a  place  of  beauty,  so 
she  is  naturally  interested  in  abating  nuisances 
and  promoting  everything  that  tends  to  the 
development  of  purity  of  life  in  the  city  at 
large.  With  more  of  patience  and  persistence 
than  man,  she  continues  in  her  efforts  to  re- 
form conditions  until  results  are  accomplished. 
The  emancipation  of  the  American  woman  can 
best  be  realized  by  a  study  of  existing  con- 
ditions in  lands  where  the  harem  holds  sway 
or  where  child  widows  are  numbered  by  thou- 
sands. Under  these  conditions  women  live 
narrow,  contracted  lives,  without  social  or  edu- 
cational opportunities,  and  without  any  far- 
reaching  influence.  The  women  of  this  and 
other  favored  lands,  set  free  from  such  a  nar- 
row environment,  are  introduced  into  the 
larger  life  of  service,  and  busy  themselves  in 
making  for  the  good  of  their  neighborhood, 
and  for  the  city  at  large.  Manifesting  as 
they  often  do  a  greater  measure  of  self-sacri- 
fice than  the  men  of  the  community,  they  are 
entitled  to  the  highest  praise. 

A  study  of  the  modern  Woman's  Club  is  of 
great  importance,  since  it  furnishes  to  women 
the  opportunity  for  the  expression  of  her 
highest  altruistic  impulses.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  new  social  movement,  women  were  as- 


WOMEN'S  WORK  97 

sociated  together  for  the  acquiring  of  knowl- 
edge pleasantly,  and  at  a  far-off  range.  Today 
they  are  studying  unpleasant  facts,  looking  at 
them  straight  in  the  face  and  by  their  com- 
bined efforts  are  seeking  to  right  what  is 
wrong.  As  some  one  has  said,  "Club  wives 
and  mothers  are  not  satisfied  that  their  chil- 
dren are  well  nourished  and  well  educated; 
they  have  become  members  of  the  race  where 
once  they  were  members  of  the  family;  their 
minds  and  hearts  are  awake  to  the  needs  of 
the  children  of  other  mothers."  The  Woman's 
Club  is  a  place  where  the  college  woman  can 
take  a  post-graduate  course  in  civics;  a  place 
for  the  cultivation  of  "matriotism"  as  one  has 
called  it — a  term  which  includes  all  that  is 
pure  and  true  and  beautiful  in  thought  and  life. 
In  the  city  of  Los  Angeles,  in  her  beautiful 
home,  "El  Nido,"  lives  Madame  Severance, 
"The  Mother  of  Clubs."  Her  home,  sur- 
rounded by  stately  trees  and  brightest  flowers, 
is  the  meeting  place  of  rare  souls  who  come 
thither  for  communion  with  a  great  soul,  and 
for  inspiration  and  uplift.  Madame  Severance 
was  the  founder  of  the  first  woman's  club  in 
our  land,  known  as  the  New  England 
Woman's  Club  of  Boston,  which  was  estab- 
lished in  1868.  Moving  to  Los  Angeles,  she 
organized  and  became  the  first  president  of 
the  original  club  of  this  city;  and  later,  in 
1891,  when  the  Friday  Morning  Club  was 
formed,  she  was  elected  as  its  first  leader. 


98  THE  BETTER  CITY 

Hers  has  been  an  eventful  life  in  the  larger 
fellowship  of  women.  What  she  has  said  of 
another  may  be  fittingly  applied  to  her :  "She 
has  always  adorned  womanhood  and  worn  the 
white  flower  of  a  blameless  life  in  public  and 
in  private." 

The  growth  of  the  club  idea  has  been  so 
rapid,  in  the  opening  of  the  new  century,  that 
without  careful  study  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand the  scope  and  the  work  of  the  many 
clubs  which  seem  to  overlap  one  another.  A 
survey  of  these  clubs  may  be  helpful.  The 
Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  is  divided  into 
the  National,  State  and  District  Federations. 
The  California  Federation  consists  of  six  dis- 
tricts: the  Northern,  San  Francisco,  Alameda, 
San  Joaquin  Valley,  Los  Angeles,  and  South- 
ern Districts,  which  together  have  many  thou- 
sand women  enrolled.  The  Los  Angeles  Dis- 
trict has  fifty-four  clubs,  of  which  twenty-three 
are  located  in  this  city.  Many  of  the  larger 
clubs  have  a  membership  of  from  100  to  1,000 
women.  Outside  of  this  Federation,  but  co- 
operating with  it,  are  many  other  groups  of 
women  workers,  toiling  for  the  world's  better- 
ment. Child  study  circles  are  found  in  all  the 
public  schools  as  units  in  the  larger  organiza- 
tion, known  as  the  National  Congress  of 
Mothers.  The  National  Sunshine  Society  has 
its  local  branches  whose  aim  is  to  let  sunshine 
into  darkened  lives.  The  Women's  Parlia- 
ment, meeting  twice  a  year,  has  a  membership 


WOMEN'S  WORK  99 

composed  of  women  who  are  members  of 
some  one  of  the  federated  clubs.  The  Needle 
Work  Guild  of  America  has  a  flourishing 
branch,  whose  members  contribute  each  year 
new  garments,  which  are  distributed  after 
careful  investigation  among  the  many  institu- 
tions of  the  city.  Separated  from  these  are  the 
White  Ribboners,  who  in  the  city,  district, 
state,  national  and  international  organizations 
constitute  the  great  body  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 
Young  ladies  are  working  effectively  in  city 
and  college  in  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  which  is  world- 
wide in  its  organization.  In  the  Assistant's 
League;  the  Woman's  Exchange;  the  Grand 
Army  Relief  Corps;  the  Catholic  Sisterhoods; 
the  Deaconess'  Work;  in  Social  Settlements 
and  on  City  Commissions;  in  lodges,  Church 
Societies  and  Rescue  Missions,  a  multitude  of 
large-hearted  women  of  this  city  are  not  only 
receiving  knowledge  and  inspiration,  but  are 
giving  of  their  best  to  others  less  fortunate 
than  they.  They  are  interested  as  one  of  their 
number  has  said  "in  everything  which  makes 
life  more  beautiful,  duty  more  alluring,  and 
men,  women  and  children  happier  in  each 
other." 

Valuable  as  is  the  work  of  the  Women's 
Clubs,  there  are  still  to  be  found  those  who 
speak  lightly  of  this  new  force.  A  Washing- 
ton Senator  has  been  quoted  as  saying  that 
"this  is  rapidly  becoming  a  government  of  the 
women,  for  women's  views,  and  by  the 


100  THE  BETTER  CITY 

Women's  Clubs.  It  is  strange  that  the  men 
do  the  work  of  electing  us  to  these  positions 
while  women  assume  the  duty  of  telling  us 
afterwards  what  they  want  us  to  do.  The 
right  to  petition  is  apparently  more  prized  than 
the  right  of  suffrage,  and  the  women  do  the 
petitioning." 

While  each  of  the  clubs  in  the  city  is  doing 
a  distinct  work,  there  is  among  them  a  grow- 
ing desire  to  pass  on  their  best  for  the  help 
of  others.  The  first  and  largest  combination 
of  women  in  the  city  is  the  Friday  Morning 
Club.  It  is  also  the  broadest  in  its  scope  and 
most  inclusive  in  its  fellowship.  Its  by-laws 
declare  that  "all  women  of  Los  Angeles  and 
vicinity  shall  be  eligible  to  membership." 
Among  its  thousand  members  are  wage  earn- 
ers and  women  of  the  leisure  class,  those  who 
are  leaders  in  society,  and  those  who  devote 
their  entire  life  to  charity  and  reform.  Mem- 
bership involves  no  social  obligation  beyond 
meeting  within  the  club  room  parlors. 
Cliques,  professional  circles  and  caste  lines 
are  forgotten  for  the  hour,  and  the  spirit  of 
good  fellowship  prevails.  "The  discussion  of 
topics  of  general  interest"  is  given  as  the  ob- 
ject of  the  club,  and  this  gives  broad  scope  to 
the  programs.  Those  who  are  doing  some- 
thing worth  doing  in  the  world's  work  are 
those  who  are  sought  to  lead  the  discussions. 
There  is  no  obligation  to  study,  but  this 
method  of  teaching  by  experts  in  live,  up-to- 


T-1"      OF  THE 

ii    UNIVERSITY 


WOMEN'S  WORK  101 

date  movements,  gives  to  this  club  a  vitalizing 
force,  which  expresses  itself  in  countless  activ- 
ities for  the  world's  good.  The  rapid  growth 
of  the  club  makes  a  larger  building  necessary, 
and  already  plans  are  drawn  for  a  grand  and 
stately  structure.  The  members  are  loath  to 
leave  their  beautiful  club  house  on  Figueroa 
Street,  which  is  a  perfect  adaptation  to  the 
mission  style,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  illustra- 
tion. A  great  future  is  before  this  club,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  that  will 
go  to  make  this  a  better  city  will  find  its 
inception  within  the  walls  of  this  vine-covered 
building,  or  the  new  home  that  is  to  be  builded 
for  the  women  of  the  next  decade. 

The  Ebell  Club,  which  has  nearly  800  mem- 
bers, was  organized  in  1894  as  a  study  club, 
modeled  after  the  plan  proposed  by  Dr.  Adrian 
Ebell.  Its  section  work  is  most  interesting. 
The  entire  club  is  divided  for  the  purpose  of 
intensive  study,  into  the  following  sections: 
Home,  Education,  Music,  Civics  and  Art ;  each 
under  a  competent  leader.  A  handsome  new 
club  house  on  Figueroa  Street  is  the  home  of 
this  band  of  cultured  and  earnest  women. 
While  seeking  helpful  knowledge  on  all  sub- 
jects pertaining  to  the  home  and  higher  cul- 
ture of  life,  their  motto  might  well  be  "Ich 
Dien,"  as  they  give  themselves  like  their  sisters 
in  other  clubs,  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  uplift 
of  the  entire  community. 

Much   work   affecting   the    welfare   of   this 


102  THE  BETTER  CITY 

municipality  is  planned  and  carried  to  com- 
pletion by  the  Civic  Association  of  Los  An- 
geles, which  was  formed  seven  years  ago,  and 
has  at  present  a  membership  of  150.  The  sec- 
tions into  which  the  Association  is  divided  are 
as  follows  :  "Outdoor  Art,  Juvenile  Court,  Con- 
sumer's League,  Child  Study  Circle,  Domestic 
Science,  Board  of  Education,  Manual  Training, 
School  Lunches,  School  Decoration,  Circulat- 
ing Art  Cabinet,  and  Lectures.  Deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  welfare  of  the  children,  the  mem- 
bers of  this  Association  were  the  first  to  make 
a  strong  plea  for  playgrounds.  They  were  suc- 
cessful in  securing  the  cooperation  of  the  city 
in  this  matter  and  the  appointment  of  a  play- 
ground commission,  with  two  members  ap- 
pointed from  the  Civic  Association.  Under 
the  leadership  of  these  two  women  members, 
the  Commission  bought  a  block  of  land  on 
Violet  street  and  equipped  an  excellent  play- 
ground which  is  largely  patronized  and  is  do- 
ing the  preventitive  work  which  is  so  much 
better  than  reform  work.  A  second  play- 
ground has  been  opened  in  Echo  Park.  The 
Playground  Commission  asked  permission  to 
erect  playground  apparatus  in  three  school- 
yards, in  the  congested  districts.  This  was 
granted  and  during  the  summer  vacations 
these  were  conducted  with  such  success  that 
when  schools  opened,  the  School  Board  took 
the  responsibility  of  their  care  during  the  en- 
tire school  year.  Compared  with  other  years, 


WOMEN'S   WORK  103 

only  a  very  few  boys  were  arrested  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  playgrounds  during  the 
past  year,  a  record  which  shows  their  value 
and  furnishes  an  argument  for  their  establish- 
ment in  other  parts  of  the  city.  Plans  have 
been  formed  for  a  great  recreation  center  in 
the  Eighth  Ward,  similar  to  those  opened  by 
the  South  Park  Commission  in  Chicago.  The 
sites  for  nine  distinct  playgrounds  have  been 
selected  by  the  Commission. 

Besides  showing  interest  in  playgrounds 
and  in  the  Juvenile  Cpurt  the  Association  is 
making  war  on  the  smoke  nuisance,  and  is 
seeking  to  have  the  city  make  back-door  gar- 
bage collections.  It  is  also  endeavoring  to  in- 
terest the  children  in  bird  life.  It  has  like- 
wise plans  for  the  establishment  of  drinking 
fountains  of  a  sanitary  kind.  For  the  past  two 
years  it  has  conducted  garden  contests  in  three 
of  the  most  congested  districts.  Garden  and 
flower  seeds  have  been  distributed  with  in- 
structions how  to  plant  and  care  for  the  gar- 
dens. Certain  of  the  members  have  visited 
each  garden  many  times  during  the  season, 
giving  advice  and  encouragement.  Not  alone 
were  the  homes  made  beautiful  by  the  flowers, 
and  food  furnished  in  the  vegetables  from  the 
gardens,  but  the  children  were  given  work 
which  called  out  their  better  natures.  At  the 
close  of  the  season,  the  Mayor  and  a  member 
of  the  Park  Commission  gave  prizes  to  the 
successful  contestants,  urging  them  on  to  even 


104  THE  BETTER  CITY 

better  work  in  home  decoration  during  the 
coming  season.  The  Association  has  also 
had  no  small  part  in  carrying  out  the  plans 
of  the  Consumer's  League,  furnishing  a  white 
list  of  all  stores  who  treated  their  help  in 
a  just  and  humane  way.  They  plead  with  all 
holiday  shoppers  to  buy  their  holiday  goods 
early,  thus  saving  the  clerks  from  much  over- 
work due  to  the  later  rush.  Through  this  de- 
partment of  the  Consumer's  League,  Owen 
Lovejoy,  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  National 
Child  Labor  Committee,  was  brought  to  Los 
Angeles,  and  through  his  influence  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  inspector  of  child  labor  in  Southern 
California  factories  seems  assured.  They  are 
also  interested  in  the  extension  of  the  Park 
system  and  of  the  flower-lined  boulevards 
reaching  to  the  sea.  Joining  with  the  Church 
Federation,  they  have  succeeded  in  inducing 
many  of  the  large  stores  to  close  on  Saturday 
noon  during  the  summer  months.  The  fight 
against  bill  boards  and  vile  posters  which  has 
been  begun  will  be  pushed  until  they  are  taken 
from  our  streets.  This  Association  was  suc- 
cessful in  securing  the  appointment  of  a  tree 
warden,  who  will  have  general  supervision  of 
tree  planting  on  public  streets,  inspecting  trees 
now  growing  on  the  streets,  and  encouraging 
with  his  advice  and  help  the  culture  of  shade 
and  ornamental  trees  throughout  the  city. 
Through  the  work  of  the  women,  an  annual 
Arbor  Day  celebration  has  been  instituted, 


WOMEN'S  WORK  105 

which  is  becoming  a  great  event  among  the 
school  children. 

Another  far-reaching  movement  consists  of 
the  Child  Study  Circles,  which  are  composed  of 
mothers  surrounding  every  school  in  the  city. 
These  circles,  which  include  the  rich  and  poor, 
the  American  and  the  foreign-born  women,  are 
the  outgrowth  of  the  National  Congress  of 
Mothers,  whose  last  annual  session  was  held 
in  this  city.  The  aims  and  purposes  of  this 
Mother's  Congress  are  set  forth  as  follows : 

"To  raise  the  standards  of  home  life.  To 
develop  wiser,  better  trained  parenthood. 

"To  give  young  people,  ignorant  of  the 
proper  care  and  training  of  children,  opportuni- 
ties to  learn  this  that  they  may  better  perform 
the  duties  of  parenthood. 

"To  bring  into  closer  relation  the  home  and 
the  school,  that  parent  and  teacher  may  co- 
operate intelligently  in  the  education  of  the 
child. 

"To  surround  the  childhood  of  the  whole 
world  with  that  loving  wise  care  in  the  im- 
pressionable years  of  life,  that  will  develop 
good  citizens  instead  of  law  breakers  and 
criminals. 

"To  use  systematic  effort  to  this  end, 
through  the  formation  of  Mother's  Clubs  in 
every  public  school  and  elsewhere;  the  estab- 
lishment of  kindergartens  and  laws  which  will 
adequately  care  for  neglected  and  dependent 
children,  in  the  firm  belief  that  united,  con- 


106  THE  BETTER  CITY 

certed  work  for  little  children  will  pay  better 
than  any  other  philanthropic  work  that  can 
be  done. 

"To  carry  mother  love  and  mother  thought 
into  all  that  concerns  and  touches  childhood  in 
Home,  School,  Church,  State  or  Legislation. 

"To  secure  such  legislation  as  will  insure 
that  children  of  tender  years  may  not  be  tried 
in  ordinary  courts,  but  that  each  town  shall 
establish  juvenile  courts  and  special  officers, 
whose  business  it  shall  be  to  look  out  for  that 
care  which  will  rescue  instead  of  confirm  the 
child  in  evil  ways. 

"To  work  for  such  probationary  care  in  in- 
dividual homes  rather  than  institutions. 

"To  rouse  the  whole  community  to  a  sense 
of  its  duty  and  responsibility  to  the  blameless, 
dependent  and  neglected  children  because 
there  is  no  philanthropy  which  will  so  speedily 
reduce  the  expense  of  institutions  for  correc- 
tion and  reform. 

"The  work  of  the  Congress  is  civic  work  in 
its  broadest  sense.  It  is  an  organized  effort  for 
the  higher,  nobler  national  life,  which  can  only 
be  attained  through  the  individual  homes." 

The  Ruskin  Art  Club  is  not  only  giving  its 
attention  to  the  study  of  art,  but  it  has  created 
a  Fine  Arts  Association  for  the  purpose  of 
building  a  permanent  art  gallery  and  museum 
in  this  city.  It  is  cooperating  with  the  Munic- 
ipal Art  Commission,  two  members  of  which 
belong  to  the  Ruskin  Club.  The  "Municipal 


WOMEN'S   WORK  107 

Art  Commission  is  seeking  in  many  ways  to 
beautify  the  city  and  is  greatly  interested 
in  securing  the  services  of  a  city  architect  who 
will  lay  out  the  plan  for  the  greater  Los  An- 
geles. 

What  has  been  said  touching  the  civic  and 
philanthropic  interest  shown  by  the  women  of 
Los  Angeles,  whose  organizations  have  already 
been  described,  may  also  be  said  of  the  many 
women  of  the  other  clubs  throughout  the  city. 
In  these  days  of  altruistic  effort,  the  women 
who  give  time  to  mere  amusement  clubs  are 
missing  much  that  makes  life  worth  living. 
The  way  in  which  the  women  of  Los  Angeles 
gave  themselves  to  service  on  the  various  relief 
boards  after  the  San  Francisco  disaster,  speaks 
well  for  the  future  of  this  city.  If  the  same 
amount  of  earnest  work  were  given  year  by 
year  along  all  lines  of  helpful  service,  marvel- 
ous results  would  be  accomplished.  What 
might  not  the  women  of  this  city  do  in  keeping 
open  the  door  of  hope  for  the  fallen  sisters,  in 
working  earnestly  in  the  cause  of  child  labor? 
The  toiling  sister  in  our  modern  industrialism 
needs  not  only  friends,  but  she  needs  also  those 
who  will  study  her  problems  and  set  in  motion 
the  forces  which  will  finally  bring  relief. 

Banded  together  for  God  and  Home  and 
Everyland,  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  of  Los  Angeles  is 
said  to  have  the  largest  membership  of  any 
single  union  in  the  world.  It  is  making  war- 
fare against  "the  one  great  wasting  destroying 


108  THE  BETTER  CITY 

force  of  human  life."  It  has  greatly  broadened 
the  scope  of  its  work  so  as  to  include  agitation, 
education,  legislation  and  moral  suasion. 
Through  a  score  of  departments,  it  touches  in 
a  helpful  way  many  sides  of  life.  It  places 
stress  on  methods  which  make  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  liquor  traffic;  the  training  of  par- 
ents in  the  value  of  prenatal  influence,  that 
every  child  may  be  well  born,  and  in  raising 
the  standard  of  purity  until  public  sentiment 
may  demand  "a  white  life  for  two."  This  band 
of  great-hearted  women  who  compose  this  or- 
ganization have  put  their  hands  to  large  tasks, 
and  have  already  won  great  victories  in  their 
warfare  against  deadly  evils. 

Many  of  the  young  women  of  Los  Angeles 
are  busy  in  the  various  activities  of  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association — the  largest  in 
the  world  in  point  of  numbers,  having  an  en- 
rollment of  over  4,000.  Engaged  in  the  pro- 
motion of  education  and  in  sustaining  arts, 
they  easily  attract  wage  earners  who  desire  to 
better  their  condition  and  at  the  same  time 
have  the  help  and  fellowship  of  noble  women. 
The  noon-day  lunch,  patronized  by  over  1,100 
women,  brings  the  Association  well  on  the  way 
to  self  support.  In  cooperation  with  the  Dea- 
coness* Association,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  maintains 
three  Travelers-aid  Deaconesses  at  the  depots, 
who  meet  all  unattended  women,  directing 
them  to  friends  or  boarding  places,  and  fur- 
nishing them  aid  and  care  when  needed.  Vari- 


WOMEN'S  WORK  109 

ous  clubs  maintain  rest  rooms  near  the  Arcade 
Depot,  and  cottages  at  the  beaches.  The 
rapid  growth  of  this  Association  called  for  a 
large  and  well-equipped  building,  now  under 
erection,  which  is  destined  to  touch  for  good 
the  lives  of  a  multitude  of  young  women,  many 
of  whom  may  be  far  from  home  and  friends. 

The  publication  of  the  autobiography  of  a 
working  girl,  entitled  "The  Long  Day,"  has 
drawn  attention  to  the  fearful  condition  of  the 
average  working  girl,  who  receives  so  small  a 
wage  that  she  cannot  afford  to  live  in  a  decent 
place  where  she  can  find  a  home  or  lodging. 
As  a  result  of  this  aroused  interest,  there  will 
no  doubt  be  built  by  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  Salvation 
Army  and  other  kindred  organizations,  hotels 
for  women,  similar  to  the  existing  men's  hotels, 
thus  protecting  the  working  girl,  who  is  in  far 
greater  danger  than  the  young  man  away  from 
home  and  its  helpful  influence. 

From  all  these  various  activities  it  is  evident 
that  the  women  of  the  city  are  well  organized 
for  social  and  civic  betterment,  and  it  goes 
without  saying  that  they  will  prove  to  be  a 
growing  factor  in  the  making  of  the  Better 
City. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST 

The  Great  Teacher  said  of  old,  "Let  the 
little  children  come  to  me,  and  do  not  hinder 
them,  for  it  is  to  the  child-like  that  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  belongs."  When  the  new  ideal 
society  of  which  he  spoke  is  at  last  established, 
the  child  will  be  in  the  midst,  and  be  of  all 
citizens  the  most  honored.  The  world's  noblest 
souls  will  be  the  teachers  of  the  child ;  learned 
specialists  will  give  instruction  as  to  the  value 
of  prenatal  influences,  so  that  a  clean,  healthy 
parenthood  may  be  the  boon  of  every  child. 
Psychologists  will  give  popular  lectures  on  the 
power  of  suggestion  and  environment  upon 
young  life ;  and  on  the  moral  and  spiritual  value 
of  the  adolescent  period.  Religious  teachers 
will  seek  for  the  fullest  development  of  the 
soul  life.  The  State  as  the  good  Over-father  of 
all  will  seek  not  merely  to  punish  the  way- 
ward, but  to  bring  all  into  the  highest  citizen- 
ship. 

The  greatest  study  of  man  is  not  man  full 
grown,  but  man  in  the  making.  It  is  easier  to 
form  than  to  reform ;  easier  to  start  a  tree 
right  than  to  straighten  it  when  full  grown. 
It  is  more  economical  to  train  up  a  child  in  the 
right  way  than  to  punish  and  reform  him  as  a 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  111 

delinquent  when  full  grown.  The  world  is  yet 
far  from  the  ideal.  Birth,  environment,  in- 
struction are  oftentimes  all  bad.  Yet  despite 
all  drawbacks,  child  workers  report  great  prog- 
ress toward  the  ideal. 

Among  the  child-saving  agencies,  the  first  in 
importance  is  the  home.  The  influence  of  a 
good  home  never  dies ;  though  the  son  become 
a  prodigal,  sooner  or  later,  the  song  of  home 
and  mother  will  awaken  echoes  of  a  happier 
past  and  bring  him  back  to  the  better  life.  But 
all  children  are  not  born  in  real  homes.  The 
tenement  with  its  foul  and  dark  rooms,  never 
tempts  a  child  to  stay  indoors,  but  sends  him 
out  into  the  courtyard  and  street  for  social  life 
and  companionship.  The  slatternly,  loud- 
voiced  mother  who  was  sorry  when  the  child 
was  born,  never  inspires  to  clean  living.  The 
father,  drunken  and  profane,  is  at  first  feared, 
and  afterwards  imitated.  Considered  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  child,  the  housing  problem 
takes  on  significance.  Destroy  the  tenement, 
scatter  the  population,  encourage  the  growing 
of  plants  and  vines,  and  the  new  environment 
will  give  the  child  a  fair  chance  and  may  be  the 
means  of  the  reform  of  the  parents  as  well. 

Untrained  and  ignorant,  many  do  not  know 
the  value  of  good  thoughts  and  pure  living  to 
the  unborn  child.  The  science  of  eugenics 
may  yet  aid  in  giving  us  a  race  all  "well  born." 
May  not  the  State  claim  the  right  and  the 
duty  to  say  that  mental  and  physical  defectives 


112  THE  BETTER  CITY 

shall  not  be  allowed  to  propagate  their  kind? 
Reacting  upon  home  life,  the  kindergarten  is  as 
useful  for  the  parent  as  the  child.  The  per- 
meating influence  of  education  succeeds  when 
all  other  agencies  fail.  The  Mother's  Club  in 
the  School  and  Settlement  furnish  ideals  for 
home  transformation.  Temperance  reform 
purifies  civic  life;  good  reading,  elevating  en- 
tertainments, and  new  spiritual  ideals  have 
their  bearing  on  the  uplifting  of  home  life  and 
therefore  on  the  saving  of  the  child. 

Our  hearts  are  always  moved  by  the  sight 
of  the  unfortunate  and  the  abnormal.  Yet  the 
great  mass  of  children  are  above  that  line  and 
are  normal  in  their  development.  For  such 
the  public  school  spells  power.  The  three  h's 
• — the  head,  the  heart,  and  the  hand — are  sup- 
plementing the  three  R's,  resulting  more  and 
more  in  the  harmonious  development  of  the 
body,  mind  and  spirit. 

It  was  Plato  who  advised  the  putting  out  of 
the  way  all  the  weak  and  imbecile  children, 
as  well  as  the  aged  when  they  became  a  burden. 
This  was  a  survival  of  the  fittest,  which  is  the 
law  in  the  animal  world.  The  making  fit  to 
survive  is  more  Godlike.  Under  the  power  of 
this  new  idea,  the  strong  are  giving  of  their 
strength  to  the  weak,  soul  touching  soul  until 
healing  virtue  passes  into  the  darkened  mind. 
The  miracle  of  the  new  birth  is  witnessed  daily 
in  the  school  and  institution  as  well  as  in  the 
church  and  cathedral.  The  story  of  man's  part 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  113 

in  this  wonderful  soul  awakening  is  thrilling  in 
the  extreme.  There  is  for  example  the  story  of 
the  physician  who  spent  hours  with  the  poor 
imbecile  until  the  dawning  of  consciousness 
made  it  possible  for  others  to  carry  on  the 
development;  or  the  story  of  the  noble  woman 
whose  life  devotion  to  the  mute  blind  girl  was 
rewarded  by  seeing  her  develop  into  that 
woman  of  rare  powers,  Helen  Keller.  These 
and  a  multitude  of  others  that  might  be  men- 
tioned, are  altruistic  heroes,  whose  recompense 
does  not  consist  in  money  or  medals,  but  in 
consciousness  of  being  workers  with  the  Divine 
in  the  wonderful  process  of  re-creation.  The 
mental  and  the  physical  defectives  cannot  be 
destroyed.  The  amount  of  science,  knowledge 
and  love  applied  to  their  restoration  is  the 
measure  of  our  best  civilization. 

In  the  ordinary  rush  of  modern  commercial- 
ism, the  weaklings — children  and  adults  as  well 
— are  being  forced  to  the  wall,  to  become  pau- 
pers or  the  wards  of  the  State.  The  new  day 
has  a  new  spirit.  The  recovery  of  defectives 
to  citizenship  and  power  is  part  of  the  program 
of  those  whose  souls  are  stirred  by  the  thought 
of  universal  love  and  a  truer  manhood. 

There  are  perhaps  about  180,000  defective 
children  in  this  country,  waiting  for  some  one 
to  love  them  back  into  normal  life.  I  say 
"love,"  for  that  is  the  secret  of  the  success. 
The  teacher  of  the  abnormal  child  needs  love 
and  still  more  love,  for  after  years  of  experi- 


114  THE  BETTER  CITY 

ment,  it  is  shown  that  love  opens  all  avenues  to 
the  soul.  A  striking  example  of  that  is  given 
in  "The  American  Motherhood,"  in  the  story 
of  the  awakening  of  Sylvanus.  Sylvanus  was 
an  imbecile  eight  years  old.  Mr.  James  B. 
Richards  says,  "I  got  down  on  the  floor  beside 
the  child,  and  day  after  day  for  six  months 
read  to  him  as  though  he  understood  every 
word.  One  day  I  read  to  myself,  and  Sylvanus 
lifted  his  finger  and  laid  it  on  my  lips."  He 
had  expressed  a  want,  a  beginning  at  least  of 
the  final  recovery.  Years  of  such  loving  treat- 
ment passed  by,  and  little  by  little  the  light 
broke  into  the  darkened  mind.  Seeing  a  child 
with  its  mother,  Sylvanus  asked  one  day, 
"Have  I  a  mother?"  She  was  sent  for,  and 
when  she  came,  he  said,  "O  mother,  I  am  so 
glad  to  see  you."  A  soul  had  been  liberated 
at  last  through  love.  Does  it  pay  to  spend  so 
much  more  money  upon  the  abnormal  than 
upon  the  normal?  Ask  the  father  of  the  child, 
helpless  for  years,  who  was  brought  back  to 
the  joyous  play  of  childhood  by  the  skill  of 
Prof.  Lorenz.  Ask  the  mother  of  the  child, 
deaf,  dumb  and  blind,  who  has  been  taught  to 
read  and  speak  and  take  his  part  in  the  family 
life.  Get  the  testimony  of  a  thousand  homes 
made  happy  by  the  return  to  them  of  bright, 
happy  children,  once  feeble  in  mind  and  body. 
At  Eldridge  Home,  300  of  California's  2,000 
or  3,000  feeble-minded  folk  are  cared  for.  In 
some  of  the  best  institutions  in  the  country 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  115 

seventy-five  per  cent  are  regarded  as  teachable 
and  given  constant  attention  under  scientific 
supervision.  Much  is  made  of  farm  work,  the 
growing  of  flowers,  and  the  various  forms  of 
industrial  work.  There  are  no  punishments, 
but  a  system  of  rewards  for  work  well  done. 
In  the  best  of  schools,  thirty  per  cent  of  the 
inmates  can  be  made  self-supporting  in  ten 
years.  The  girls  of  the  school  make,  repair  and 
laundry  the  clothes  for  all;  the  boys  do  the 
farm  work  and  are  employed  in  many  trades 
and  help  in  the  house  work.  One  can  see  that 
only  the  best  teachers  should  be  used  in  such 
schools.  "The  duller  the  child,  the  better  the 
teacher  must  be  and  more  love  and  enthusiasm 
must  he  have  for  the  work." 

The  movement  in  public  school  life  for  medi- 
cal inspection  is  showing  that  many  backward 
children  are  so  not  because  of  mental  failure, 
but  because  of  impaired  eyesight,  partial  deaf- 
ness, physical  malformation  or  nervous  dis- 
turbance. When  these  troubles  are  remedied, 
they  become  like  other  normal  children.  For 
those  who  are  backward,  many  cities  have  pro- 
vided special  schools  where  the  children  receive 
individual  instruction  and  in  this  way  are  en- 
abled to  keep  up  with  their  grades. 

No  work  for  children  has  called  out  so 
much  sympathy  and  philanthropic  effort  as  the 
care  of  orphans  and  dependent  children.  Ac- 
cording to  a  late  report,  there  are  in  California 
5,852  dependent  children,  in  44  asylums.  Of 


116  THE  BETTER  CITY 

these,  1,005  are  orphans;  4,133,  half  orphans; 
469,  abandoned  children;  228,  foundlings; 
while  2,481  children  are  cared  for  by  the  State 
outside  of  institutions.  The  orphanages  main- 
tain about  1,200  children  who  do  not  receive 
State  aid,  but  whose  maintenance  is  provided 
for  by  relatives  and  friends.* 

Dependent  children  are  kept  in  institutions 
on  the  congregate  plan,  divided  among  cot- 
tages, or  boarded  out  in  homes  found  for  them. 
Each  plan  has  its  advocates,  though  the  insti- 
tutional plan,  except  as  a  temporary  resort,  is 
much  less  in  favor  than  formerly.  While  all 
dependent  children  are  considered  as  wards  of 
the  State,  California,  unlike  some  Eastern 
States,  has  no  institution  of  its  own.  With  the 
exception  of  a  County  orphanage  at  Fresno, 
all  of  the  remaining  forty-three  are  private 
benevolent  establishments,  fifteen  of  them  be- 
ing under  the  Catholic  Church,  the  remainder 
under  Protestant  control  or  belonging  to  benev- 
olent orders.  The  objection  to  congregating 
children  in  large  institutions  is  founded  on  the 
result  of  such  treatment.  Well-fed,  healthy 
children  though  they  are,  saved  from  bad  hab- 
its and  usually  taught  religion,  they  are  often 
found  lacking  in  the  power  of  initiative,  push 
and  independence  and  that  development  of  in- 
dividualism which  is  so  necessary  to  success 
in  this  world.  The  individual  has  been  assim- 


*Institutional  Life.    Arthur  J.  Pillsbury. 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  117 

ilated  in  the  mass,  and  has  become  institution- 
alized. A  prominent  social  worker,  after 
watching  a  large  group  of  well-fed  orphans 
march  to  the  table  in  perfect  silence  and  move 
on  through  all  the  day  as  one  mass,  said,  "It 
is  an  awful  thing  to  see  400  children  behaving 
at  once."  It  is  a  human  deed  to  save  the 
orphan  child  from  the  peril  of  the  streets,  but 
in  these  days  philanthropy  cannot  stop  at  that, 
but  ought  to  seek  to  aid  in  the  fullest  develop- 
ment of  every  child.  A  self-reliant  independent 
personality  is  the  product  sought  for. 

As  an  ordinary  home  is  better  than  any 
orphanage,  the  nearer  to  the  home  life  the 
orphanage  can  be  brought,  the  better  it  will  be. 
The  cottage  plan,  while  more  costly  than  the 
congregate,  is  much  better  because  more  nat- 
ural ;  every  cottage,  neat,  attractive,  and  home- 
like, having  its  house  mother  or  father  and 
from  twenty  to  twenty-five  children.  This 
group  resembles  a  well-ordered  family,  each 
doing  a  part  for  the  good  of  all.  Where  pos- 
sible, the  children  should  attend  the  public 
school,  going  and  coming  like  other  children. 
If  situated  in  the  country,  the  daily  work  upon 
the  farm  and  in  the  flower  garden  will  be  a 
great  aid  in  the  normal  development.  There 
will  exist  a  friendly  rivalry  among  the  children 
as  to  whose  cottage  shall  be  the  most  home- 
like and  attractive,  whose  yard  shall  be  the 
brightest  with  flowers  and  vines.  Believing 
that  a  home  is  better  than  an  institution,  some 


118  THE  BETTER  CITY 

states  have  adopted  a  plan  for  boarding  out 
the  children.  In  Massachusetts,  where  asy- 
lums are  privately  endowed,  the  state  furnishes 
no  further  aid,  but  looks  after  dependent  chil- 
dren not  in  institutions,  and  boards  out  in 
private  families  some  4,000  children.  Beside 
providing  clothing  and  medical  aid,  it  pays 
from  $2.00  to  $2.75  per  week  for  board.  All 
homes  are  carefully  investigated,  and  the  chil- 
dren looked  after  by  fifty  volunteer  visitors, 
and  by  a  force  of  trained  visitors  who  devote 
their  time  to  the  work.  Boston  does  an  in- 
dependent work,  having  900  children  scattered 
through  the  New  England  States,  looked  after 
by  paid  visitors.  Pennsylvania  regards  the 
boarding-out  plan  as  better  than  that  of  the 
institution.  The  Aid  Society  of  Philadelphia 
receives  children  whose  parents  have  encount- 
ered industrial  hardships,  through  strikes  or 
lockouts  or  lack  of  work,  and  boards  them  out 
among  the  farmers  at  $1.50  or  $2.75  per  week, 
allowing  $30  per  year  for  clothing  and  bringing 
them  back  again  when  the  parents  are  able  to 
support  them.  Ofttimes  the  farmers  are  so  un- 
willing to  give  up  these  children  that  arrange- 
ments are  made  for  their  further  stay,  without 
the  payment  of  any  board.  Of  the  7,000 
boarded  out,  3,000  are  on  such  a  free  list. 

This  system  will  not  work  of  itself,  but  must 
be  safeguarded  by  constant  visits  to  the  homes, 
so  as  to  protect  the  children  from  ill  treatment 
and  overwork.  Owing  to  the  present-day  con- 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  119 

ditions,  economical  and  social,  there  are  many 
thousand  homes  without  any  child  life.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  there  is  a  homeless  child  for  every 
childless  home ;  to  bring  these  two  together  is 
as  much  a  problem  as  to  get  the  landless  man 
on  the  manless  land.  All  states  are  now  in- 
terested in  placing,  as  speedily  as  possible,  all 
the  uncared-for  children  in  some  good  home, 
provided  they  cannot  be  returned  to  their  rela- 
tives. Every  county  in  Michigan  employs  a 
special  agent  who  places  dependents  in  homes, 
visiting  and  reporting  regularly  to  the  State. 
The  Children's  Home  Society  makes  a  special 
point  of  finding  suitable  homes  throughout  the 
West.  The  Children's  Aid  Society  is  the  old- 
est of  the  home-finding  societies,  having  placed 
tens  of  thousands,  with  a  bad  report  on  only 
five  per  cent.  The  problem  is  how  to  get  the 
homeless  child  to  the  childless  home  soon 
enough  to  secure  for  it  the  loving  embrace  of 
the  woman  with  the  mother's  heart  before  it 
becomes  fixed  in  the  ways  of  institutional  life. 
All  children  in  the  institution  are  not  ideal. 
There  is  need  of  those  who  with  unselfish  con- 
secration are  willing  to  take  the  unpromising 
children  and  do  their  part  for  society  by  loving 
them  into  decent  manhood  and  womanhood. 
Not  enough  can  be  said  against  the  purely 
selfish  desire  which  seeks  an  orphan  for  adop- 
tion either  because  of  its  beauty  or  attractive- 
ness or  because  of  future  ability  as  a  worker, 
thus  saving  the  hire  of  a  servant. 


120  THE  BETTER  CITY 

By  placing  the  emphasis  upon  home  finding 
for  dependent  children  social  workers  are  not 
saying  that  there  is  no  need  for  the  institution. 
Temporary  care  ofttimes  is  all  that  is  neces- 
sary. For  instance,  until  the  widow  or  the 
widower  marries  again,  or  the  former  secures 
remunerative  employment  where  she  will  be 
able  to  support  the  child,  there  is  need  for  such 
care.  The  average  length  of  institutional  life 
in  California  for  such  is  between  two  and  three 
years.  Another  use  of  the  asylum  is  to  pre- 
pare for  home  life  by  the  removing  of  all 
physical  defects  and  handicaps,  by  straighten- 
ing crooked  limbs  and  removing  adenoid 
growths.  Special  emphasis  is  laid  upon  this 
work  in  the  institutions  in  Iowa,  Michigan, 
Massachusetts  and  New  York.  Institutions 
will  always  be  necessary  in  order  to  care  for 
unattractive  children  whom  no  one  wants,  of 
whom  it  is  reckoned  there  are  about  1,000  in 
California  asylums.  The  "basket  baby"  is  al- 
ways in  evidence.  What  is  the  best  thing  to 
do  with  such  foundlings?  In  the  ordinary  asy- 
lum, the  death  rate  of  the  little  ones  has  been 
from  fifty  to  ninty-eight  per  cent.  In  order  to 
avoid  this  dreadful  mortality,  this  state  gives 
$12.50  a  month  to  have  the  children  boarded 
out  under  the  care  of  a  good  mother,  where 
they  can  obtain  plenty  of  fresh  cow's  milk. 
New  York  has  found  that  among  Italian 
women  accustomed  to  the  service  of  midwives, 
two-fifths  of  the  infants  are  still  born.  By 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  l2l 

placing  the  foundlings  with  these  healthy 
mothers,  they  are  well  cared  for  until  they 
are  able  to  stand  the  life  of  an  institution. 
California  believes  that  "aid  in  the  home  of  a 
surviving  and  worthy  parent  is  the  best  form 
of  state  aid."  Many  are  cared  for  who  never 
enter  an  institution.  This  state  believes  in 
the  family  unit,  and  is  determined  not  to  have 
the  family  broken  up  simply  because  of  pov- 
erty. After  a  careful  study  of  conditions 
throughout  the  country,  Mr.  Pillsbury  writes : 
"Eastern  states  in  general  say  in  effect  to  the 
widowed  mother,  'Very  well,  madam,  if  you 
cannot  support  your  children,  we  will  take 
them  from  you  and  parcel  them  out  to  persons 
who  can  support  them,  but  they  will  no  longer 
be  your  children.  They  will  be  adopted  by 
others  and  will  become  as  much  their  children 
as  if  born  to  them.'  California  says  to  such 
an  unfortunate  woman,  'Madam,  the  state 
sympathizes  with  you  in  your  distress  and  is 
ready  and  willing  to  help  you  reasonably.  You 
may  place  the  children  in  the  orphanage  of 
your  choice  and  leave  them  there,  visiting  them 
meantime  on  proper  occasions,  until  you  de- 
velop an  earning  capacity  which  will  enable 
you  to  get  them  under  a  roof  of  your  own 
providing.  Or  they  may  remain  under  your 
own  roof,  if  you  have  one,  and  through  your 
local  supervisors  you  may  receive  as  much 
state  aid  as  you  need  and  no  more,  provided 
that  it  does  not  exceed  $75  per  year,  and  you 


122  THE  BETTER  CITY 

may  receive  that  aid  as  long  as  you  need  it  and 
no  longer.  You  may  thus  keep  your  family  to- 
gether without  grave  hardship  and  your  chil- 
dren will  belong  to  you  and  not  to  a  stranger.' 
The  heart  of  California  is  right;  and  it  is  bet- 
ter to  submit  to  some  imposition  than  that  in 
the  name  of  economy,  the  state  should  steel  its 
heart  against  the  fundamental  promptings  of 
parental  affection." 

Fifty  years  ago,  the  Sisters  of  Charity  came 
to  this  city  from  the  Mother  House  in  Mary- 
land, and  established  an  asylum  on  Alameda 
Street.  Later  they  built  their  large  and  at- 
tractive Home  on  Boyle  Heights.  There  are 
now  350  girls  who  are  orphans,  half  orphans, 
or  abandoned,  under  their  constant  care,  their 
entire  training,  spiritual,  physical  and  mental 
being  given  within  the  building.  The  Los 
Angeles  Orphan's  Home,  founded  twenty-four 
years  ago,  has  a  substantial  brick  building  on 
Alpine  Street.  One  hundred  and  fifty  children 
receive  the  usual  care,  together  with  instruc- 
tion in  sloyd  and  manual  training.  In  addition 
they  have  the  very  great  privilege  of  attending 
the  public  school  in  the  neighborhood,  the 
older  children  also  being  allowed  to  attend  the 
nearby  churches  on  Sunday.  The  Boy's  and 
Girl's  Home  in  South  Pasadena  has  about  125 
bright  boys  and  girls.  This  institution  is  on 
the  congregate  plan.  The  latest  asylum  to 
be  founded  is  that  of  the  Volunteers  of  Amer- 
ica on  Twenty-third  Street  and  Vermont 


tHE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  123 

Avenue.  This  was  opened  just  in  time  to  re- 
ceive the  thirty-two  orphans  brought  from  the 
San  Francisco  House  after  the  fire.  While  all 
of  these  institutions  seek  permanent  homes  for 
the  children,  the  McKinley  Home  for  boys  is 
the  only  one  which  has  adopted  the  cottage 
plan.  Situated  on  a  farm  about  half  way  to 
the  ocean,  it  offers  an  ideal  place  for  the  train- 
ing of  the  eighty  boys  gathered  under  its  roof. 
Manual  training,  flowers,  gardens,  public 
school  instruction,  and  the  appointment  of 
house  mothers  make  it  quite  up-to-date  in  the 
working  out  of  the  cottage  plan.  All  of  these 
institutions  receive  state  aid,  and  whenever 
possible,  regular  payments  from  relatives,  be- 
sides donation  from  friends.  At  no  time,  how- 
ever, are  they  without  the  need  of  more  finan- 
cial help.  State  aid  for  the  child  ceases  at  four- 
teen years.  But  what  shall  become  of  the 
children  after  that  age  when  they  are  turned 
out  into  the  world  without  fitness  for  self- 
support?  If  the  asylum  cannot  follow  them 
through  their  critical  years,  the  state  should 
keep  them  under  its  watchful  care  and  intro- 
duce a  system  of  visitation  and  work  finding 
to  aid  them  until  they  are  well  able  to  care  for 
themselves.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  News- 
boys' Home  in  this  city  to  receive  working 
boys  over  fourteen  and  thus  tide  over  this 
critical  time.  They  have  now  two  cottages  in 
use. 

It   is   a   question   how   much   philanthropy 


124  THE  BETTER  CITY 

helps  to  solve  the  problems  of  the  world.  But 
so  long  as  there  are  forces  at  work  producing 
conditions  which  make  for  poverty  and  de- 
pendency, no  one  will  deny  that  it  is  a  splendid 
charity  to  care  for  the  children  of  mothers  who, 
because  of  the  death  or  abandonment  of  their 
husbands,  are  forced  to  work,  and  by  such 
care  make  it  possible  to  keep  the  family  to- 
gether until  the  dawning  of  a  better  day.  The 
King's  Daughters'  Day  Nursery  started  in  the 
Bethlehem  Church  in  1895,  has  now  built  a 
commodious  house  on  Clarence  Street  to  carry 
on  that  work.  At  Manhattan  Beach,  in  their 
pleasant  rest  cottage,  forty  children  have  re- 
ceived a  whole  month's  outing  each  year.  The 
Children's  Home  Society  on  East  Twenty-fifth 
Street  has  received  126  children  for  the  year, 
and  has  permanently  placed  eighty-eight  in 
selected  homes. 

But  our  debt  to  society  is  not  discharged  by 
caring  for  the  feeble  and  the  dependent  little 
ones.  The  delinquents — those  who  have  done 
wrong,  must  be  recovered,  or  the  jails  of  the 
future  will  be  filled  and  society  will  be  the 
loser.  It  is  only  a  few  years  since  the  public 
conscience  was  aroused  in  regard  to  the  treat- 
ment of  juvenile  delinquents.  Before  that,  all 
children  were  arrested  like  adult  criminals, 
driven  to  jails  in  patrol  wagons,  thrown  into 
cells,  tried  in  the  same  court,  sentenced  to  the 
jail  or  the  penitentiary,  or  at  best  to  the  reform 
school.  These  were  all  schools  of  crime,  out 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  125 

of  which  the  children  came  as  graduates.  But 
now  the  child  is  in  the  midst,  and  his  value  to 
the  state  is  fully  recognized.  He  is  no  longer 
looked  upon  as  a  criminal  fit  only  for  reforma- 
tion ;  he  is  looked  upon  as  an  unfortunate  child 
needing  formation  and  direction.  In  most  of 
our  cities,  the  delinquent  child  is  now  placed 
in  a  detention  home  rather  than  in  a  jail.  He 
has  a  court  of  his  own,  presided  over  by  a  kind- 
hearted  judge.  He  is  not  sentenced  to  im- 
prisonment, but  placed  under  a  probation  of- 
ficer who  helps  him  with  respect  to  his  home, 
his  school  or  his  work,  and  to  whom  he  must 
report,  for  he  is  a  ward  of  the  Court.  Only 
when  he  is  found  to  be  incorrigible  is  he  sent 
to  the  reform  school.  Gradually  the  old  type 
of  penitentiary-like  reform  school  is  giving 
place  to  the  cottage  plan  on  the  distant  farm, 
or  to  the  finding  of  farm  work  for  groups  un- 
der a  probation  officer  or  to  a  speedy  parole  for 
good  behavior.  Many  states  prefer  to  place 
their  delinquents  among  farmers  in  the  same 
way  as  they  do  their  dependents.  It  is  usually 
conceded  that  under  the  new  Juvenile  Court 
law,  eighty-one  per  cent  of  all  brought  before 
the  Court  are  benefited  and  saved  to  society, 
while  under  the  old  system,  ninety-five  per 
cent  were  lost.  A  long  list  of  up-to-date  institu- 
tions could  be  given,  where  the  highest  thought 
for  child  training  is  being  put  into  practice. 
Notably  in  this  list  of  helpful  agencies  may  be 
mentioned  the  "George  Junior  Republic,"  es- 

9 


126  THE  BETTER  CITY 

tablished  by  Mr.  W.  R.  George  at  Freeville, 
N.  Y.  This  is  self-governing  and  eminently 
successful.  In  response  to  an  invitation  from 
the  Juvenile  Court  Association,  Mr.  George 
came  to  Los  Angeles  this  spring  and  aroused 
considerable  interest  and  enthusiasm  for  this 
kind  of  work,  leaving  the  social  workers  deter- 
mined to  raise  $25,000  for  the  beginning  of  a 
similar  work  near  this  city.  The  credit  is  to 
be  given  to  Colorado  for  establishing  the  prin- 
ciple that  he  who  contributes  to  the  delin- 
quency of  a  child  is  himself  a  delinquent.  Un- 
der the  law,  the  men  who  sell  liquor  or  cigar- 
ettes to  children  are  brought  into  Court  and 
fined  or  sent  to  jail.  In  the  same  way  tele- 
graph and  messenger  companies  are  brought 
into  Court  for  sending  boys  to  immoral  places. 
A  stop  has  thus  been  put  in  Colorado  to  a 
custom  still  in  practice  in  Los  Angeles,  where 
boys  are  freely  sent  to  the  worst  of  places. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  principle  of  adult 
responsibility  may  soon  be  universally  applied. 
Among  the  new  methods  of  dealing  with 
delinquents,  that  of  medical  examination  and 
treatment  as  an  aid  to  moral  recovery  is  com- 
mendable. In  Philadelphia  specialists  are  now 
at  work  with  ten  thousand  children  from  the 
poorer  districts,  removing  physical  defects, 
which  are  in  many  instances  said  to  be  the  di- 
rect cause  of  the  criminal  instinct  that  lead 
them  into  sin.  Already  wonderful  results  have 
been  obtained. 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  127 

In  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Los  Angeles,  Judge 
Wilbur  is  seeking  to  apply  all  the  new  ideas 
indicated,  with  much  success.  He  is  ably  as- 
sisted by  the  Juvenile  Court  Committee,  five 
probation  officers  and  fifty  deputy  officers. 
The  chief  drawback  has  been  the  lack  of  a 
suitable  Detention  Home,  the  old  jail  with  its 
atmosphere  of  crime  being  used  temporarily. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  very  soon  this  city  will 
have  a  thoroughly  equipped  Detention  Home,  in 
connection  with  which  there  shall  be  no  sug- 
gestion of  police  court  or  jail. 

The  question  of  truancy  and  child  labor  is 
closely  associated  with  the  work  of  the  Juven- 
ile Court.  In  order  to  separate  the  mere 
truant  from  the  vicious  child,  the  Board  of 
Education  has  opened  two  special  schools  for 
truants  or  mischief  makers,  and  has  bought  a 
beautiful  site  north  of  Elysian  Park  for  a  par- 
ental school — the  city  standing  in  the  place  of 
a  parent.  This  will  be  the  first  parental  school 
in  the  state,  and  will  aid  materially  in  lessening 
the  number  of  future  criminals. 

The  Juvenile  Court  Committee  has  organ- 
ized an  Association  to  extend  the  opportunities 
of  the  Court  in  its  efforts  to  help  individual 
children,  and  to  bring  the  public  into  active 
cooperation  with  the  Juvenile  Court.  The 
work  of  the  Association  has  been  outlined  as 
follows :  "To  provide  the  money  for  the  suc- 
cessful conducting  of  such  parts  of  the  work 
of  the  Court  as  must  necessarily  be  maintained 


128  THE  BETTER  CITY 

by  private  expenditure.  Poverty,  sickness  and 
evil  surroundings  place  the  children  in  the 
gravest  peril,  demanding  prompt  relief  in  mani- 
fold ways. 

"To  aid  in  the  gradual  development  of  a 
system  of  special  probation  officers  and  in  the 
securing  by  legislation  or  otherwise  of  an  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  deputy  probation  of- 
ficers. 

"To  take  active  part  in  the  study  of  condi- 
tions and  in  the  effort  to  secure  the  betterment 
of  conditions  for  children.  To  reach  the  group 
of  boys,  to  find  and  remedy  the  cause  of  a 
certain  bad  condition,  whether  local  or  far- 
reaching — this  is  child  saving  far  beyond  the 
possibilities  that  lie  in  the  Juvenile  Court,  con- 
tent to  'do  its  best'  with  each  individual  child 
brought  before  it  for  dependency  or  delin- 
quency. 

"Therefore,  all  over  the  land,  among  the  pro- 
gressive people  working  to  help  children,  will 
be  found  this  eagerness,  not  only  to  help  the 
individual  child,  but  to  go  farther  and  find  the 
cause  of  the  child's  sad  state  and  deal  with  it 
to  an  extent  made  possible  only  by  strong 
support  and  intelligent  interest." 

Membership  in  the  Association  was  sought 
from  all  churches,  clubs  and  other  organiza- 
tions willing  to  contribute  $25  annually,  and 
individuals  willing  to  contribute  $5.  Regard- 
ing the  establishment  of  this  Association, 
Judge  Wilbur  of  the  Juvenile  Court  writes  as 


THE  CHILD  IN  THE  MIDST  129 

follows :  "I  desire  to  say  in  regard  to  the  work 
of  the  Juvenile  Court  that  I  am  more  than 
persuaded,  as  I  see  the  way  in  which  the  work 
of  the  Court  enters  into  the  life  of  the  people, 
that  the  Juvenile  Court  idea  will  form  the  ral- 
lying point  about  which  almost  all  of  the 
measures  of  reform  with  regard  to  the  educa- 
tion and  training  of  the  child  life  will  center. 
The  problem  of  the  Juvenile  Court  is  as  large 
as  life  itself.  It  is  obvious  therefore  that  the 
intelligence  of  a  large  number  of  people  is  es- 
sential to  the  proper  conduct  of  the  work. 
Touching  human  life  and  activity  at  all  points 
as  does  the  Juvenile  Court,  through  the  pro- 
bation officers,  it  is  obvious  that  there  must 
be  an  elasticity  which  is  impossible  under  any 
law,  and  as  can  only  exist  by  the  helpful 
cooperation  of  those  who  are  willing  to  devote 
time  and  money  to  the  upbuilding  of  humanity. 
I  have  said  comparatively  little  with  reference 
to  the  question  of  money  in  dealing  with  the 
problem  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  yet  the  fact  that 
the  Whittier  State  School  is  being  depopulated, 
resulting  in  a  large  saving  to  the  taxpayers,  is 
significant.  Los  Angeles  City  is  today  being 
taxed  over  $600,000  to  support  insane  asylums, 
states  prisons,  jails,  sheriffs,  police  and  homes 
for  the  feeble  minded  children,  yearly.  I  know  of 
no  way  in  which  money  can  be  so  well  used  to 
stem  this  awful  drain  as  in  the  work  of  caring 
for  these  children  who  are  so  far  dependent  or 


130  THE  BETTER  CITY 

delinquent    as    to    come    before    the    Juvenile 
Court." 

While  there  is  very  much  new  work  inaugu- 
rated on  behalf  of  child  life,  the  older  agencies 
are  ever  busy.  The  Sunday  School,  Junior 
Societies,  Bands  of  Hope  and  Mercy,  Humane 
Societies,  Boy's  Clubs  and  Brigades,  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  athletics  and  night  schools,  industrial  and 
trade  schools,  fresh-air  work,  children's  hospi- 
tals, kindergarten  and  child-study  circles  are 
all  working  with  loving  purpose.  All  such 
efforts  on  behalf  of  the  child  in  the  midst  will 
surely  aid  in  the  creation  of  the  Better  City. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE 

The  American  saloon  is  the  great  hindrance 
in  the  upbuilding  of  the  Better  City.  It  not 
only  debauches  many  of  the  citizens,  lessening 
their  earning  power,  making  them  less  able  to 
resist  disease,  breaking  up  their  home  life,  pro- 
ducing among  them  poverty  and  pauperism ; 
but  entering  into  politics  it  becomes  a  standing 
menace  to  better  city  government.  President 
Roosevelt  has  well  said  that  "the  liquor  traffic 
tends  to  produce  criminality  in  the  population 
at  large,  and  law  breaking  among  the  saloon 
keepers  themselves."  If  the  saloon  is  an  in- 
stitution harmful  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
modern  city,  be  it  remembered  that  every  city 
has  the  right  to  regulate  or  even  prohibit  it. 
The  Supreme  Court  has  decided  that  "to  sell 
liquor  is  not  one  of  the  rights  growing  out  of 
citizenship  in  the  United  States."  And  again, 
"there  is  no  inherent  right  of  a  citizen  thus  to 
sell  liquors  by  retail.  It  is  not  a  privilege  of 
the  citizen  of  the  State  or  the  citizen  of  the 
United  States."  The  question  of  regulation  or 
prohibition  of  the  saloon  is  being  continually 
brought  before  every  city  seeking  the  best  in- 
terests of  its  citizens.  In  this  connection  an 


132  THE  BETTER  CITY 

epoc-making  decision  has  been  recently 
handed  down  by  Judge  Samuel  Artman  of  the 
Circuit  Court  of  Indiana,  in  refusing  to  allow 
the  granting  of  a  saloon  license.  He  held  that 
the  State  cannot  delegate  to  the  saloon  a  legal 
existence  under  the  guise  of  a  license,  in  that 
a  saloon  leads  to  immorality,  suffering  and 
loss  of  life. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  in  the  majority  of 
American  municipalities  there  is  a  strong  sen- 
timent toward  greater  and  still  greater  re- 
strictions upon  the  traffic,  until  its  final  ex- 
tinction has  been  secured?  Many  -convinced 
that  it  is  a  check  upon  the  highest  progress 
are  ready  to  ask  with  Dr.  Robert  Burdette : 
"Can  you  name  one  good  thing  the  saloon 
has  done  for  humanity — one  good  thing — but 
one  instance  in  which  it  has  brought  forth 
fruit  unto  righteousness — one  influence,  sweet 
and  healthful  and  pure  and  gracious  and  beau- 
tiful, which  will  linger  lovingly  in  the  mem- 
ory of  men,  when  you  have  buried  the  rum 
power  to  make  them  say,  'God  bless  the  sa- 
loon for  the  good  it  did?'  Search  through 
the  history  of  this  hateful  thing  and  try  to 
discover  one  page  over  which  a  mother  can 
bow  her  grateful  head  and  thank  God  for  all 
the  saloon  did  for  her  boy.  There  is  no  such 
record.  All  its  history  is  written  in  tears  and 
blood,  with  smears  of  shame,  and  stains  of 
crime,  and  dark  blots  of  disgrace."  It  would 
be  bad  enough  if  the  evil  were  to  end  with  the 


Y.   W.   C.   A.   NEW   BUILDING 


POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE  133 

adults  now  being  ruined  in  the  American  sa- 
loon, but  it  is  an  acknowledged  fact  that  the 
combined  liquor  element  is  seeking  to  ensnare 
the  boys  who  are  to  be  the  men  of  the  next 
generation.  To  the  educator,  the  Juvenile 
Court  worker,  the  settlement  resident,  and  to 
all  lovers  of  boys,  this  fact  is  most  serious  in 
its  consequences  and  far  reaching  in  its  re- 
sults. The  author,  born  in  Maine  and  brought 
up  in  Iowa,  was  a  grown  man  before  he  had 
ever  seen  a  saloon  or  the  color  of  any  liquor. 
So  far  as  he  knows,  not  one  of  his  schoolmates 
ever  became  a  drinking  man.  What  he  en- 
joyed for  himself,  he  desires  for  every  other 
boy  in  the  land — a  chance  to  grow  up  in  a 
clean  city  and  a  pure  atmosphere. 

No  city  ever  afforded  a  more  striking  ex- 
ample of  the  good  result  of  saloon  suppression 
than  did  the  once  saloon-cursed  San  Francisco, 
when  after  the  fire  every  saloon  was  closed. 
A  Chronicle  editorial  described  it  as  a  city 
almost  without  crime.  It  said:  "San  Fran- 
cisco for  the  past  fortnight  has  been  abso- 
lutely free  from  disorder  and  virtually  free 
from  crimes  of  violence.  There  have  been  no 
street  brawls.  No  drunken  brute  has  mur- 
dered his  wife.  No  gamblers  have  murdered 
each  other  in  low  resorts.  Except  for  some 
dealings  with  sneak  thieves,  the  occupation  of 
the  police  is  gone.  It  is  an  impressive  object 
lesson  of  the  value  to  society  of  the  restric- 
tion of  the  liquor  traffic."  The  same  paper 


134  THE  BETTER  CITY 

declared  that  when  the  saloons  were  opened, 
many  former  drinkers  after  seventy-nine  days 
of  abstinence  seemed  cured  of  the  cocktail 
habit.  "Liquor  drinking,"  it  added,  "is  with 
most  people  not  the  gratification  of  an  appe- 
tite, but  a  mere  habit.  There  is  no  liquor  and 
few  wines  which  taste  good.  Even  the  toper 
who  takes  his  whiskey  straight  washes  the 
taste  out  of  his  mouth  with  water  as  quickly 
as  he  can.  With  a  comparatively  few  there  is 
a  real  craving  for  liquor,  or  at  least  its  stimu- 
lating effects,  but  the  vast  majority  of  those 
who  drink  in  the  saloons  do  so  merely  because 
in  the  poverty  of  their  intellects  they  do  not 
know  of  any  other  way  of  manifesting  good 
fellowship  toward  friends  whom  they  meet. 
So  the  drink  habit  is  formed,  which  in  many 
cases  degenerates  into  dissipation  and  the 
drunkard's  craving." 

The  story  of  the  liquor  regulation  in  Los 
Angeles  shows  what  can  be  done  largely 
through  the  education  of  public  opinion.  Los 
Angeles  is  an  American  city,  being  to  a  great 
extent  made  up  of  those  who  came  first  as 
tourists  from  the  East  and  Middle  West,  and 
fascinated  by  the  conditions  of  life  in  this 
Sunny  Land  have  returned  as  citizens.  It  is 
a  city  of  churches  and  schools  and  civic  bodies, 
deeply  interested  in  creating  the  best.  The 
type  is  that  of  the  highest  moral  and  ethical 
citizenship.  In  1899  the  Council  passed  an 
ordinance  limiting  the  number  of  saloons  to 


POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE  135 

200  and  prohibiting  their  extension  into  the 
residence  districts.  While  the  liquor  traffic 
has  continually  fought  this  ordinance,  it  still 
remains  the  law  of  the  city,  notwithstanding 
that  the  city  has  more  than  doubled  in  popu- 
lation. While  the  laws  regulating  the  control 
of  the  saloon  have  not  always  been  enforced, 
each  year  has  seen  more  restrictive  measures 
passed,  such  as  the  removal  of  chairs,  boxes 
and  tables,  and  the  prohibition  of  women  and 
minors  from  the  saloons.  The  matter  of  bring- 
ing the  numerous  social  clubs  of  the  city  under 
city  control  is  now  under  discussion.  Under 
the  present  law,  the  police  have  no  more 
power  of  inspection  over  these  than  they  have 
over  a  private  residence. 

Among  the  forces  at  work  creating  public 
sentiment,  the  Anti-saloon  League  is  promi- 
nent. This  organization  under  the  able  leader- 
ship of  Dr.  E.  S.  Chapman,  has  within  the 
last  few  years  succeeded  in  changing  the  black 
map  of  Southern  California  into  a  white  map 
with  black  spots.  By  means  of  local  option 
campaigns  in  both  township  and  county,  six 
counties  are  now  dry,  with  the  exception  of  one 
or  two  towns,  while  outside  of  Los  Angeles, 
fifty-five  of  the  towns  and  cities  in  Southern 
California  are  dry.  These  campaigns  carry  on 
educational  propaganda  through  platform  and 
press  so  that  the  vote  is  an  intelligent  one. 
At  the  last  election  the  roadhouses  outside  the 
city  were  voted  out,  so  that  there  is  neither 


136  THE  BETTER  CITY 

roadhouse  nor  licensed  saloon  within  a  radius 
of  ten  miles  beyond  the  city  limits,  except  in 
a  few  places  where  the  supervisors  have 
granted  special  privileges.  The  work  of  sa- 
loon suppression  was  so  successful  outside  of 
the  cities  in  1904,  that  the  Anti-saloon  League 
organized  its  forces  for  a  campaign  in  Los 
AngeJes.  After  a  hard-fought  contest,  the 
temperance  people  were  defeated. 

There  are  many  other  organizations  at  work 
for  temperance  in  this  city.  The  Prohibition 
party  is  ever  active,  seeking  the  entire  over- 
throw of  the  liquor  traffic.  The  Good  Temp- 
lars maintain  a  number  of  lodges,  and  are 
helpful  on  the  side  of  positive  temperance. 
John  Sobieski,  the  lineal  descendant  of  King 
John  Sobieski  of  Poland,  is  an  honored  resi- 
dent of  this  city  who  labors  constantly  for 
temperance  on  the  lecture  platform.  Francis 
Murphy,  the  leader  for  so  many  years  of  the 
blue-ribbon  movement,  but  who  closed  his 
eventful  life  on  June  30th,  was  another  citizen 
of  Los  Angeles,  who  gave  his  life  to  this 
good  work,  securing  thousands  of  signatures 
to  the  total  abstinence  pledge.  The  W.  C.  T.  U. 
has  here  the  largest  federation  in  the  entire 
country.  Through  their  many  lines  of  work 
and  education,  they  have  exerted  a  very  de- 
cided influence  on  the  side  of  positive  temper- 
ance. The  Catholic  Society,  known  as  the  Fa- 
ther Mathew  Society,  the  Salvation  Army,  the 
Volunteers  of  America,  and  the  Rescue  Mis- 


POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE  137 

sions  recover  many  who  have  formed  the  drink 
habit,  and  save  many  who  have  just  started  on 
the  downward  way.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  now 
building  a  character  factory  costing  $350,000. 
This  movement  will  furnish  a  positive  factor  in 
the  temperance  work,  providing  as  it  does, 
lodgings,  reading  rooms,  baths,  educational 
and  athletic  facilities,  thus  making  for  a  full 
rounded  life,  and  standing  for  self-control  in 
all  things.  The  new  Y.  W.  C.  A.  building  with 
its  enlarged  facilities  will  also  enable  that  or- 
ganization to  do  for  the  women  what  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  does  for  the  men.  In  all  the 
churches  of  the  city  there  is  a  great  awakening 
of  interest  along  social  lines,  with  a  consequent 
arousing  of  zeal  for  temperance,  in  proportion 
as  the  people  come  to  realize  the  relation  be- 
tween good  social  conditions  and  the  temperate 
life.  Whenever  a  public  official  is  found  who 
courageously  enforces  the  existing  laws,  great 
progress  is  made  in  any  reform.  District  Attor- 
ney J.  D.  Fredericks,  after  serving  a  term  in 
office  in  which  he  enforced  the  liquor  laws 
without  fear  or  favor,  was  re-elected  by  an 
overwhelming  majority,  showing  that  the  peo- 
ple believe  in  such  law  enforcement. 

While  rejoicing  in  definite  campaigns  con- 
ducted against  the  liquor  traffic  with  such  suc- 
cess, and  in  the  passage  and  enforcement  of 
laws  restricting  the  traffic,  we  must  not  forget 
that  a  vast  amount  of  good  work  is  being  done 
which  is  not  negative  or  prohibitory,  but  is 


138  THE  BETTER  CITY 

positive  in  its  methods.  The  creating  of  sa- 
loon substitutes — the  furnishing  of  ordinary 
education,  the  teaching  of  a  trade,  the  creation 
of  a  love  for  good  reading,  the  work  of  home 
building,  the  teaching  of  the  value  of  foods  and 
the  proper  methods  of  cooking  them,  in  short 
everything  which  arouses  the  best  in  a  man 
and  helps  him  to  break  the  bondage  of  mere 
appetite  and  passions,  tends  in  the  direction  of 
positive  temperance.  Power  from  within  is 
worth  more  than  restraint  from  without.  The 
extension  of  education  to  the  training  in  the 
actual  doing  of  things,  as  well  as  in  the  three 
R's,  resulting  in  the  awakening  of  genius  and 
in  the  preparing  for  a  life  work  adapted  to 
each  child  is  also  tributary  to  this  end.  The 
kindergarten  has  its  reflex  influence  upon  the 
home,  in  teaching  nature's  order,  and  in  in- 
cluding thoughtfulness  for  another's  interests. 
The  cooking  school  helps  to  make  good  house- 
wives, and  good  food  is  a  strong  promoter  of 
temperance.  The  bath  tub,  the  school  nurse, 
the  gymnasium  and  the  playground  all  help 
in  creating  a  vigorous  physical  life  with  great 
vitality  and  power  of  resistance  which  does  not 
call  for  stimulants,  but  is  content  with  the 
simple  life. 

The  newest  movement  in  connection  with 
the  public  school  also  has  its  bearing  on  tem- 
perance. This  movement  consists  in  making 
the  school  a  community  center  where  night 
schools  are  held,  open  to  the  young  and  middle 


POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE  139 

aged  alike,  where  popular  lectures  are  given, 
and  where  thousands  of  men  may  spend  a 
profitable  evening  away  from  the  contaminat- 
ing influence  of  the  saloon.  The  Child  Study 
Circles  reaching  as  they  do  so  many  mothers 
from  among  the  poor,  offer  another  avenue  for 
temperance  instruction. 

Far  reaching  as  is  the  public  school  in  its 
temperance  instruction  and  indirect  influence, 
the  public  library  is  now  vicing  with  it  in 
bringing  the  light.  The  intellectual,  artistic 
and  industrial  progress  of  a  community  can 
be  aided  by  a  larger  use  of  our  public  libraries, 
and  according  to  reports  many  libraries  have 
adopted  aggressive  measures  in  order  to  stim- 
ulate the  use  of  the  books  which  fill  their 
shelves.  They  supplement  the  work  of  the 
public  schools.  They  minister  to  industrial 
needs.  Their  books  on  useful  and  fine  arts  are 
in  constant  demand.  They  distribute  books 
through  day  schools,  Sunday  Schools,  clubs, 
firehouses  and  other  convenient  agencies.  They 
circulate  catalogues  and  leaflets  in  factories 
and  stores.  They  hold  special  exhibits.  They 
send  out  thousands  of  postal  cards  calling  at- 
tention to  new  books.  They  make  their  con- 
tents easy  of  access,  and  furthermore,  in  order 
to  increase  steadily  the  number  of  regular 
patrons  mailing  cards  with  an  invitation  to 
use  the  library  are  sent  out  each  week  to  per- 
sons selected  from  the  city  directory.  In  this 
way  many  are  led  to  read  good  books,  and 


140  THE  BETTER  CITY 

time  outside  of  work  hours  which  offers  so 
many  temptations  is  well  used,  and  the  higher 
nature  stimulated. 

Many  of  the  leading  business  men  not  only 
set  before  their  employees  a  good  example  of 
total  abstinence,  but  insist  that  their  work- 
men shall  not  frequent  saloons.  This  attitude 
is  now  recognized  as  an  economic  necessity. 
An  extract  from  a  letter  of  C.  P.  Huntington 
shows  the  result  in  the  building  of  the  Central 
Pacific  Railroad:  "I  have  no  doubt  that  it 
would  have  taken  three  or  four,  perhaps  five, 
years  longer  to  build  the  Central  Pacific  Rail- 
road if  we  had  allowed  drinking  saloons  on 
the  ground,  but  we  took  that  matter  in  hand 
ourselves  and  did  not  allow  any  deadfalls  along 
the  line.  After  the  work  had  reached  Yuba, 
about  twenty-five  miles  from  Dutch  Flat,  we 
then  took  control  and  drove  all  of  that  class 
of  people  away,  and  were  not  disturbed  be- 
tween there  and  Salt  Lake,  but  before  that 
these  institutions  followed  us  and  we  could 
not  prevent  it,  as  we  could  not  control  them, 
and  the  result  was  that  on  Mondays  we  would 
have  but  a  few  men  at  work ;  Tuesdays,  some- 
thing more ;  and  not  until  Thursday  as  it  were 
would  we  have  anything  like  a  full  force  at 
work,  and  the  balance  who  did  work  were 
more  or  less  demoralized  by  these  institu- 
tions." Today  factories  not  only  enforce  the 
rule  prohibiting  their  employees  from  entering 
saloons,  but  they  are  giving  more  and  more 


Y.   M.  C.  A.  NEW   BUILDING 


POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE  141 

attention  to  "welfare  work,"  within  their 
own  establishments.  Under  the  leadership  of 
S.  E.  Busser,  the  Santa  Fe  has  applied  the 
Golden  Rule  to  railroading  by  providing  at  all 
division  points  "incentives  for  the  railroad 
boys  to  be  good  and  keep  their  heads  clear 
and  save  their  money,  to  sleep  in  sanitary, 
decent  quarters,  to  indulge  in  sane  recrea- 
tion, and  keep  away  from  the  bar-room 
and  the  gambling  joint  —  building  up  a 
higher  individuality  and  thus  making  for 
greater  efficiency."  Here  again  in  these  read- 
ing rooms  and  meeting  places  is  a  positive 
power  at  work  for  temperance.  In  line  with 
this  movement  is  the  custom  followed  by 
many  business  men  of  granting  the  Saturday 
half  holiday,  a  thing  which  makes  it  possible 
for  the  working  man  during  the  summer 
months  to  take  his  family  to  a  seaside  resort, 
free  from  the  temptations  of  the  city  saloons. 

The  movement  for  the  establishment  of  so- 
cial centers  should  be  encouraged,  not  alone 
because  of  their  educational  value  but  because 
they  furnish  meeting  places  where  the  social 
instincts  can  be  gratified  without  any  of  the 
evils  of  questionable  resorts.  The  building  of 
Civic  Centers  such  as  those  in  the  South  Park 
in  Chicago  encourages  living  the  normal  life 
free  from  the  excitement  of  the  guilded  palaces 
of  sin. 

That  man  is  a  gregarious  animal  is  a  fact 
to  be  recognized  by  all  reformers.  It  is  not 
10 


142  THE  BETTER  CITY 

enough  to  close  the  saloon.  If  nothing  bet- 
ter is  offered,  a  man  will  seek  "a  hole  in  the 
wall"  in  an  alley,  provided  that  it  is  a  place 
where  others  may  be  found.  Have  we  thought 
sufficiently  of  the  plight  of  the  young  man  in 
the  hall  bedroom?  Away  from  friends,  he  is 
more  alone  in  the  great  city  than  in  a  desert. 
After  work  and  supper  at  a  chop  house,  he 
tries  to  read  in  his  own  room,  but  soon  the 
intolerable  loneliness  of  it  gets  on  his  nerves. 
He  wanders  to  and  fro  on  the  streets,  drawn 
tonight  into  a  cheap  theater,  tomorrow  night 
into  a  dance  hall,  after  that  into  the  brightly 
lighted  saloon.  He  has  no  intention  of  doing 
anything  wrong,  but  where  else  can  he  go? 
The  few  friends  that  he  has  made  are  no  help 
to  him  and  he  even  loses  his  grip  on  all  of  his 
better  purposes.  For  the  sake  of  the  hall  bed- 
room young  man,  close  the  saloon !  Yes,  but 
give  him  something  better.  If  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
could  have  a  number  of  widely  scattered 
points  of  contact  in  addition  to  these  in  the 
one  great  center,  this  young  man  might  not 
be  so  lonely.  If  all  the  churches  were  churches 
of  the  open  door,  there  would  be  more  young 
men  in  their  congregations.  If  there  were  a 
systematic  effort  to  seek  out  continually  the 
young  man  in  his  lodging  house,  and  invite 
him  to  home  and  friends,  many  a  life  would 
be  saved. 

As  a  substitute  for  the  saloon,  the  Coffee 
Club  is  very  effective.     Those  of  the  Coffee 


POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE  143 

Club  Association  in  Los  Angeles,  and  of  the 
Bethlehem  Institution  are  always  filled  to 
overflowing.  Undoubtedly  many  of  their  fre- 
quenters are  homeless  men  who  might  other- 
wise be  found  in  the  saloon.  The  Bethlehem 
Men's  Hotels  furnish  not  only  a  gathering 
place,  but  also  a  homelike  atmosphere,  with 
music  and  entertainments,  thus  ministering  to 
the  entire  man.  But  there  are  men  who  have 
low  tastes  and  who  do  not  feel  at  home  in  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  or  Coffee  Club,  where  as  a  daily 
paper  says,  "they  will  not  be  allowed  to  light 
their  pipes,  put  their  feet  on  the  table,  lean 
back  in  their  chairs  and  blow  smoke  rings  to 
the  ceiling.  .  .  .  Men  wish  to  assemble  in 
public  places  where  there  is  entire  freedom  as 
to  dress  and  appearance,  and  where  there  is  no 
danger  that  anyone  will  solicit  them  to  become 
better  men.  They  are  not  only  willing,  but 
desire  to  spend  something  for  the  'good  of  the 
house'  and  for  their  own  entertainment.  If 
society  will  provide  them  with  such  a  place,  a 
good  many  will  go  there  in  preference  to  the 
saloon.  If  at  the  same  time,  all  saloons  were 
abolished,  they  will  speedily  content  them- 
selves with  the  substitutes  such  as  we  have 
suggested." 

All  reforms  are  bound  together  in  a  common 
purpose  and  the  success  or  failure  of  one  af- 
fects all  the  others.  We  hold  that  the  Hous- 
ing Commission  is  also  a  Temperance  Com- 
mission, and  that  the  Sanitary  Engineer  is  not 


144  THE  BETTER  CITY 

so  far  removed  from  his  friend  of  the  Anti- 
saloon  League.  Any  woman  who  works  for 
the  creation  of  the  City  Beautiful  is  in  her 
efforts  related  to  the  white-ribboner.  Still 
more  closely  related  to  one  another  are  those 
who  work  for  saloon  suppression  and  those 
who  are  giving  their  thought  and  energy  to  the 
securing  of  a  change  in  economic  conditions. 
Break  the  power  of  the  dollar,  and  you  close 
both  the  saloon  and  the  brothel.  The  Whiskey 
Trust  is  making  millions  out  of  these  trades, 
and  stands  in  the  way  of  law  enforcement. 
They  must  make  drunkards  or  they  cannot 
sell  their  goods.  A  writer  has  well  put  it: 
"Drunkenness  is  not  an  isolated  disease  but 
the  direct  product  of  the  social  conditions,  and 
it  cannot  be  cured  apart  from  these  condi- 
tions." What  then  are  some  of  the  next  steps 
toward  saloon  suppression  to  be  taken  in  Los 
Angeles,  in  addition  to  law  enforcement  and 
a  campaign  of  education?  We  answer  without 
hesitation,  "The  opening  of  more  such  centers 
as  those  furnished  by  the  Bethlehem  Institute 
and  the  Coffee  Clubs,  and  the  establishment  of 
an  adequate  number  of  public  comfort  sta- 
tions." Many  thousands  are  led  to  drink 
through  patronizing  the  saloons  for  the  use 
of  the  toilet  privileges. 

Twenty-two  of  the  prominent  business  men 
of  the  city  have  offered  to  establish  the  Goth- 
enburg System  to  replace  the  ordinary  saloon. 
It  is  their  plan  to  ask  the  city  to  vote  on  the 


POSITIVE  TEMPERANCE  145 

question,  and  if  the  vote  is  favorable,  to  have 
the  liquor  business  turned  over  to  them. 
They  would  then  close  all  but  seventy  sa- 
loons; all  of  those  in  the  residence  and  in- 
dustrial districts,  substituting  coffee  clubs 
where  necessary;  they  would  take  but  six  per 
cent  for  their  dividends,  all  surplus  going  to 
the  city;  and  they  would  see  that  the  laws  are 
strictly  enforced.  The  bar  keeper  would  have 
no  interest  in  increasing  the  sale  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  his  commission  being  on  soft 
drinks ;  treating  would  be  discouraged ;  secrecy 
would  be  done  away  with,  the  stores  being 
without  screens ;  the  power  of  the  dollar  would 
be  largely  eliminated,  and  the  business  taken 
out  of  politics.  Unlike  the  original  Gothen- 
burg plan,  this  would  include  the  wine  and 
beer  saloons,  which  the  former  did  not  include. 
Before  this  scheme  is  submitted  to  the  people, 
it  has  been  thought  best  to  submit  the  entire 
liquor  problem  to  a  committee  of  prominent 
citizens  who  shall  decide  whether  to  suggest 
this  plan  at  all  or  to  reduce  still  further  the 
number  of  saloons  and  narrow  the  saloon  zone, 
adopting  more  stringent  laws  regulating  the 
time  and  methods  of  sale.  Whatever  may  be 
the  decision  of  this  group  of  men,  the  temper- 
ance workers  will  not  cease  night  or  day  in 
their  efforts  to  lessen  the  power  of  the  liquor 
traffic,  and  thus  help  to  make  a  Better  City, 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
SEEKING  HEALTH 

In  creating  a  city,  due  regard  must  be  given 
to  the  preservation  of  health  and  the  preven- 
tion of  contagion.  The  mosquito  with  its  yel- 
low fever  virus,  the  typhoid  germ,  malaria  and 
the  tuberculosis  bacillus  must  be  fought  and 
conquered.  The  solving  of  the  sewerage  prob- 
lem is  as  important  to  health  and  happiness 
of  the  people  as  the  building  of  hospitals  and 
boulevards.  Sanitary  buildings  are  of  greater 
importance  to  health  than  Grecian  architec- 
ture. The  death  rate  of  the  city  does  not  de- 
pend on  an  over-ruling  Providence  as  much 
as  it  does  on  the  care  and  far-sightedness  of 
the  city  fathers.  The  owner  of  an  unsanitary 
tenement  may  be  as  much  a  murderer  as  the 
highwayman  with  knife  or  gun.  Failing  to 
report  contagious  disease  is  a  social  crime 
which  may  affect  a  hundred  homes.  An  un- 
sanitary district  in  the  slums  may  start  the 
contagion  which  sweeps  through  the  city.  To 
a  crime-breeding  section,  left  to  itself,  may  be 
traced  murder,  arson  and  a  hundred  crimes 
committed  on  the  boulevards  and  avenues.  So 
in  a  sanitary  way  no  man  liveth  to  himself. 
Our  complex  civilization  makes  it  absolutely 
necessary  to  clean  up  the  tenements,  to  watch 


SEEKING  HEALTH  147 

the  sewerage,  and  to  fight  contagion  in  every 
part  of  the  city,  for  with  social  beings  such 
as  we  are,  so  long  as  disease  lurks  anywhere, 
no  family  is  exempt  from  danger.  To  the  al- 
truistic citizen  this  argument  is  not  necessary, 
for  there  is  an  inward  impulse  impelling  him 
to  safeguard  the  life  of  every  human — even 
though  that  one  may  be  foreign  born  or  a 
pauper.  Students  of  industrial  questions  are 
forced  to  give  attention  to  accidents  and  dis- 
ease. A  great  mass  of  the  paupers  and  of  the 
miserable  poor  have  been  brought  to  their 
condition  through  these  causes  rather  than 
through  lack  of  work,  and  have  been  compelled 
to  live  on  a  wage  which  makes  it  impossible 
for  them  to  care  properly  for  a  family.  Sick- 
ness and  accidents  mean  a  bill  at  the  grocery, 
rent  in  arrears,  less  clothing,  poorer  food,  and 
less  power  to  resist  disease.  Oftentimes  acci- 
dents mean  a  lowering  of  efficiency  and  con- 
sequent decrease  in  wage.  Accidental  death 
or  crippling  of  the  breadwinner  is  apt  to  result 
in  the  necessity  of  moving  to  poorer  quarters, 
amid  filthier  surroundings,  and  the  laying  of 
heavy  burdens  upon  the  helpless  ones  when 
they  are  least  able  to  bear  them.  Much  of  the 
disease  among  the  poor  is  social  in  its  origin, 
and  for  that  reason  society  is  responsible  for 
its  continuance.  I  have  seen  children  dying 
by  the  score  in  filthy  tenements,  because  the 
avaracious  owner  would  not  make  the  repairs 
needed  in  the  toilets  and  sewers.  Greed  for 


148  THE  BETTER  CITY 

the  dollar  is  responsible  for  increased  death 
rates.  The  city  officials  can  materially  lower 
the  death  rate  in  any  city  if  they  choose  to  do 
so.  As  science  has  pointed  out  the  cause  and 
the  cure  of  many  diseases,  the  officials  have 
both  the  knowledge  and  the  power  to  apply 
that  knowledge.  I  would  rather  spend  my 
time  in  arousing  the  officials  to  do  their  duty 
than  to  be  content  with  simply  comforting  the 
broken-hearted  one  sitting  by  the  bedside  or 
bier;  for  while  it  is  good  to  comfort,  it  is 
better  to  arouse  to  duty,  if  that  awakening 
shall  lessen  the  number  of  those  saddened  by 
preventable  causes. 

As  a  city  grows  in  size  and  population,  the 
individual  has  less  and  less  control  over  the 
causes  of  disease.  No  longer  can  he  obtain 
water  from  a  well  or  spring,  but  must  take 
what  comes  to  him,  even  though  it  be  con- 
taminated at  its  source.  Not  having  built  his 
own  house,  he  knows  nothing  of  the  plumbing 
or  sewer  connections  and  therefore  is  unable 
to  check  in  time  the  flow  of  sewer  gas  which 
kills  his  child.  He  is  powerless  to  cleanse  the 
neglected  streets  or  alleys  which  prove  breed- 
ing spots  for  disease.  And  because  the  in- 
dividual is  almost  helpless  under  existing  con- 
ditions, the  burden  of  checking  disease  rests 
the  heavier  upon  society  itself.  The  two  things 
needed  are  rigid  sanitary  laws  and  fully  in- 
structed sanitary  officials,  enforcing  these  laws 
without  fear  or  favor.  To  bring  about  these 


THE   CHILDREN'S  HOSPITAL 


SEEKING  HEALTH  149 

things,  the  social  conscience  must  be  aroused 
and  every  man  led  to  feel  that  he  is  his  broth- 
er's keeper.  The  war  is  on  against  unneces- 
sary disease  and  death,  and  there  is  a  call  for 
volunteers.  And  it  pays  to  enforce  sanitary 
laws.  Robert  Hunter  in  his  work  entitled 
"Poverty,"  says  that  the  Health  Department  of 
New  York  City  was  able  during  1903  to  re- 
duce the  death  rate  from  20  to  18.71,  thus  sav- 
ing 4,500  lives  and  preventing  10,000  cases  of 
severe  illness.  "It  saved  the  work  of  one  or 
two  hospitals.  It  saved  some  wives  from  be- 
ing widows,  and  some  children  from  being 
fatherless,  and  it  also  saved  some  from  pov- 
erty." It  pays  to  prevent  disease  and  death. 
In  this  City  of  the  Angels,  although  growing 
as  a  giant  grows,  there  is  hope  that  in  time 
unnecessary  disease  and  death  may  be  elimi- 
nated. 

There  is  in  this  city  an  aroused  social  con- 
science. City  officials  as  well  as  social  work- 
ers are  seeking  accurate  knowledge  as  to  local 
conditions,  and  are  closely  watching  the  results 
of  experiments  in  other  cities.  The  housing 
commission  is  striving  for  better  sanitary  laws. 
There  is  a  strong  sentiment  against  ever  allow- 
ing a  tenement  district  to  be  established,  the 
preference  being  to  scatter  the  population  over 
miles  of  open  country  now  traversed  by  trolley 
lines.  The  school  and  district  nurses  now  re- 
port promptly  all  cases  of  contagious  disease, 
and  being  able  to  suggest  sanitary  methods  of 


150  THE  BETTER  CITY 

living  to  the  poor,  are  often  able  to  save  some 
member  of  the  family  from  a  protracted  ill- 
ness. Every  city  could  well  afford  to  employ 
a  corps  of  district  nurses  as  an  aid  to  their 
Health  Department. 

The  water  from  the  nearby  mountains  has 
always  been  guarded  so  that  rich  and  poor 
alike  need  have  no  fear  of  contamination. 
When  the  great  Owens  River  comes  rushing 
down  from  the  high  Sierras,  it  will  mean  health 
and  happiness  to  the  multitude  in  these  sun- 
kissed  valleys. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  thousands  of 
invalids  seek  this  far-famed  climate,  and  in 
many  instances  reach  here  too  late,  we  have 
the  remarkably  low  death  rate  of  14.96  in 
1000.  When  a  better  system  has  been  devised 
for  handling  the  tuberculosis  patients  arriving 
from  the  East,  the  death  rate  here  should  be 
lower  than  it  is  in  any  other  city  of  its  size. 
Here  the  best  of  all  remedies,  fresh  air  and 
sunshine,  exist  in  abundance.  Every  one  in 
this  genial  climate  is  tempted  to  sleep  out  of 
doors.  The  tendency  to  do  so  is  growing  and 
many  of  the  houses  are  built  with  open-air 
bedrooms  or  with  large  airy  rooms  where  the 
windows  are  never  closed.  While  this  way  of 
sleeping  is  just  as  beneficial  to  the  health  in 
the  North  and  East  as  it  is  here,  in  this  South- 
land it  is  so  easy  and  natural  that  an  invalid 
can  easily  be  persuaded  to  adopt  it. 

The  success  of  the  treatment  of  New  York's 


SEEKING   HEALTH  151 

bed-ridden  children  at  Sea  Breeze  on  Coney 
Island  has  proved  the  value  of  the  fresh-air 
treatment  for  non-pulmonary  tuberculosis. 
Hundreds  of  children  with  surgical  tuberculo- 
sis, who  might  have  become  hunchbacks  or 
cripples,  are  made  well  and  strong  simply  by 
living  in  the  open  air  and  by  breathing  the  salt 
sea  air.  From  the  same  treatment,  identical 
results  would  obtain  on  the  Pacific  shore  that 
obtain  on  the  Atlantic.  When  the  need  for 
such  an  institution  becomes  evident,  the  little 
sufferers  of  the  whole  Southwest  will  no  doubt 
find  health  and  strength  on  one  of  the  many 
beaches  of  the  greater  city.  As  a  change  of 
climate  is  the  best,  and  sometimes  the  only 
cure  for  asthma,  what  a  blessing  it  would  be 
for  the  thousands  of  the  poor  who  are  afflicted 
with  this  harassing  disease  if  some  philanthro- 
pist would  aid  them  in  seeking  a  new  clime, 
and  thus  finding  health  and  ability  to  make 
their  own  livelihood. 

Los  Angeles  has  become  an  educational  cen- 
ter for  the  spread  of  the  gospel  of  "a  life  in  the 
open  air  as  the  only  proper  mode  of  life  for 
human  beings."  This  means  more  life  out  of 
doors ;  it  means  more  windows  kept  open  sum- 
mer and  winter  alike.  Through  investigation, 
Robert  Hunter  has  recently  discovered  that 
the  number  of  breakfastless  children  attending 
school  in  New  York  amounts  to  many  thou- 
sands. But  the  large  majority  of  these  did  not 
care  to  eat  after  spending  the  night  in  a  stuffy 


152  THE  BETTER  CITY 

room,  that  left  them  without  any  appetite  for 
food. 

Of  all  the  diseases  that  affect  mankind,  there 
is  none  which  is  the  cause  of  more  economic 
and  social  distresss  and  waste  than  tuberculo- 
sis— "the  great  white  plague."  Once  there  was 
the  Great  Black  Plague  which  in  a  few  years 
carried  away,  from  two  to  three  million  people 
from  the  cities  of  Europe,  after  which  it  dis- 
appeared from  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  the 
great  white  plague  has  continued  through  the 
centuries,  its  annual  slaughter  of  over  a  mil- 
lion souls  each  year.  That  means  that  every 
day  of  the  year,  3,000  fall  as  its  victims.  Un- 
less there  shall  be  a  decided  change  for  the 
better,  8,000,000  of  the  population  now  living 
in  the  United  States  will  die  from  consumption. 
That  this  fearful  loss  of  life  can  be  checked  is 
the  firm  belief  of  medical  scientists.  It  is  their 
confident  hope  that  the  time  will  come  when 
the  daily  battle  now  begun  will  at  last  destroy 
the  disease.  Among  the  methods  now  em- 
ployed are  the  dissemination  of  scientific 
knowledge  regarding  the  character  of  tubercu- 
losis and  the  proper  care  of  the  patients  in  the 
home,  so  that  others  may  not  contract  the 
disease;  the  treatment  in  properly  equipped 
sanitaria  of  those  who  are  in  its  first  and  sec- 
ond stages;  and  the  building  of  comfortable 
hospitals  for  all  hopeless  cases,  thus  preventing 
the  possibility  of  further  spread  of  disease 
from  those  in  its  worst  stage.  In  these  direc- 


SEEKING  HEALTH  153 

tions  great  progress  has  already  been  made, 
and  much  has  been  done  both  in  saving  life 
and  in  checking  contagion.  Consumption  is 
a  house-bred  disease.  The  dreaded  germs  ex- 
pelled from  the  lungs  are  quickly  destroyed  in 
the  sunlight,  but  in  a  dark  room  they  may 
remain  active  for  years.  The  history  of  "the 
lung  blocks"  in  our  great  cities  is  a  proof  of 
this  statement.  In  rooms  where  tuberculosis 
patients  have  died,  for  years  afterwards  some 
member  of  nearly  every  family  occupying  these 
quarters  becomes  a  victim  of  consumption. 
Sweatshops  where  diseased  workmen  in  cough- 
ing, saturate  the  clothing  with  germs,  not  only 
spread  contagion  to  all  who  become  purchas- 
ers of  sweatshop  garments,  but  are  made  dis- 
ease centers  for  other  workmen  who  follow 
them.  What  a  burden  is  laid  upon  the  Health 
Departments  of  our  cities  in  seeing  that  every 
room  where  a  consumptive  has  lived  and  died 
has  been  properly  fumigated,  and  in  guarding 
the  public  from  contagion  in  workshop  and 
factory.  To  this  end  there  should  be  a  report 
made  to  the  Health  Office  of  every  patient  thus 
affected.  There  are  those  who  believe  that  the 
time  is  coming  when  every  advanced  case  will 
be  segregated  in  a  city  hospital,  as  is  now 
done  in  the  case  of  small  pox. 

There  are  many  agencies,  both  private  and 
public,  which  are  educating  the  general  public 
as  to  the  most  hygienic  way  of  caring  for  the 
patients  in  the  home.  Instruction  is  being 


154  THE  BETTER  CITY 

given  how  to  prevent  contagion  from  the 
sputa;  the  kind  and  value  of  food  for  the  sick 
ones;  the  absolute  necessity  for  baths  and 
fresh  air ;  the  need  of  keeping  in  mind  the  fact 
that  unaffected  ones  must  be  guarded  from 
contagion.  Private  philanthropy  has  done 
much  towards  blotting  out  the  disease,  by 
building  sanitoria  for  those  who  are  curable. 
These  sanitoria  are  to  be  found  in  Canada  and 
among  the  mountains  of  New  England  as  well 
as  in  Colorado  and  California.  Tents,  shacks 
and  open-air  bungalows  are  better,  however, 
than  the  more  closely  built  hospitals.  Proper 
food  and  rest  are  necessary,  but  fresh  air  is  the 
best  medicine,  and  this  can  be  taken  advantage 
of  just  as  successfully  at  forty  degrees  below 
zero  as  when  warmed  by  the  southern  sun. 

Some  years  ago  Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson,  a  well- 
known  philanthropist  of  St.  Louis,  established 
a  health  camp  at  Indio,  in  the  Colorado  desert 
of  Southern  California,  where  consumptives 
could  live  out  of  doors  the  year  round.  The 
charge  for  board  is  reasonable,  and  as  Nature  is 
the  only  physician,  there  are  no  added  charges 
for  doctors  or  medicines.  There  are  from  sev- 
enty to  a  hundred  patients  here  each  year,  their 
stay  averaging  sixty-six  days,  which  is  a  higher 
ratio  than  that  of  the  average  consumptive 
sanitarium.  There  is  here  a  lower  death  rate 
than  elsewhere,  it  being  one  in  ten.  Were  it 
not  for  the  rather  excessive  heat  of  summer, 
the  stay  would  be  much  longer,  and  many 


SEEKING  HEALTH  155 

more  would  obtain  an  absolute  cure  in  this 
desert  air,  which  is  very  dry,  yet  upbuilding  in 
its  effects. 

Dr.  W.  Jarvis  Barlow  has  established  a  san- 
itarium in  the  foothills  near  Los  Angeles. 
This  institution  is  located  on  a  twenty-five- 
acre  tract,  in  a  little  valley  in  the  Chavez  Ra- 
vine, just  to  the  south,  and  bordering  on  Ely- 
sian  Park.  It  receives  indigent  consumptive 
patients  on  payment  of  $5.00  per  week,  meet- 
ing the  extra  cost  by  donations  from  the  gen- 
erous public.  Owing  to  its  crowded  condi- 
tion, the  County  Hospital  is  only  able  to  ad- 
mit tuberculosis  patients  in  advanced  or  bed- 
ridden stages  of  the  disease,  so  the  Barlow 
Sanitarium  is  the  only  institution  in  Los  An- 
geles which  receives  indigent  consumptives  in 
the  early  stages  of  the  disease,  and  strives  to 
effect  a  cure  through  the  open-air  treatment. 
When  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  from  25  to  50 
per  cent  of  all  tuberculosis  morbidity  in  Los 
Angeles  is  among  indigent  residents,  the  ne- 
cessity for  such  an  institution  is  very  appar- 
ent. 

There  is  great  need,  however,  that  these 
private  efforts  be  supplemented  by  institutions 
maintained  by  the  city  and  state.  In  the  last 
report  of  the  Los  Angeles  Health  Department 
is  found  the  following  practical  suggestion: 
"If  the  county  and  city  would  provide  suitable 
sanitaria  in  the  foothills  for  the  care  of  in- 
digent tuberculosis  patients,  many  of  the  in- 


156  THE  BETTER  CITY 

cipient  cases  would  recover  and  those  in  the 
advanced  stage  of  the  disease  could  be  better 
cared  for  without  injury  to  the  non-infected." 
No  doubt  this  wise  suggestion  will  in  the  near 
future  be  carried  out.  A  private  organization 
known  as  the  Anti-tuberculosis  League  has 
recently  taken  a  forward  step  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  "Helping  Station"  for  the  poor  con- 
sumptives at  the  Medical  College  on  Buena 
Vista  Street.  Dr.  F.  M.  Pottenger,  the  organ- 
izer of  the  League,  describes  the  work  as  fol- 
lows: "Los  Angeles  has  finally  taken  a  definite 
step  to  do  the  right  thing  in  preventing  the 
spread  of  tuberculosis.  Somewhat  after  the 
method  used  in  Berlin,  the  Anti-tuberculosis 
League  of  Southern  California  has  organized  a 
helping  station.  The  purpose  of  this  helping 
station  is  not  only  to  help  those  who  are  suf- 
fering from  tuberculosis,  but  also  to  help  the 
community  at  large.  Tuberculosis,  as  is  well 
known,  is  most  common  among  the  poor.  It 
thrives  in  dark  unsanitary  quarters,  and  is 
especially  found  among  those  who  are  poorly 
fed,  overworked  and  reduced  by  excess  of  vari- 
ous kinds.  This  helping  station  shall  be  a 
place  where  the  worthy  poor  may  come  and 
receive  treatment  and  instruction  from  com- 
petent physicians.  Every  patient  is  shown 
how  to  prevent  the  spread  of  disease.  Nurses 
are  connected  with  the  station,  who  go  to  the 
house  or  quarters  occupied  by  the  patients  and 
instruct  them  just  as  thoroughly  as  possible 


SEEKING  HEALTH  157 

how  they  can  best  arrange  their  rooms  and 
homes  for  the  care  of  this  disease.  They  also 
see  the  family,  telling  them  that  the  danger  of 
tuberculosis  is  in  the  expectoration,  and  giv- 
ing them  thorough  instructions  how  to  destroy 
this.  The  necessary  spit  cups  and  disinfect- 
ants are  furnished  by  the  helping  station. 
Many  of  these  patients  suffering  from  tuber- 
culosis, even  if  they  cannot  get  well,  can  be 
restored  to  usefulness,  so  that  they  may  be 
able  to  work  and  to  support  their  families  for 
several  months,  if  they  only  can  have  the 
proper  care  and  food.  It  is  the  policy  of  the 
helping  station  to  furnish  such  food  as  milk 
and  eggs  to  the  needy  and  thus  afford  them  the 
best  opportunity  for  rapid  improvement.  An- 
other important  feature  is  the  inquiry  into  the 
health  of  the  other  members  of  the  family. 
Where  a  patient  is  found  in  a  family,  all  its 
different  members  will  be  requested  to  go  to 
the  institution  for  examination.  In  Berlin, 
where  this  plan  is  carefully  carried  out,  as 
many  as  seven  persons  have  been  found  in  one 
family  suffering  from  the  "great  white  plague." 
By  taking  the  precaution  of  examining  all 
members,  the  disease  will  be  discovered  early 
in  many  cases  and  they  can  be  put  under  the 
proper  conditions  to  get  well. 

"It    is    unnecessary    for    patients    suffering 
from  incipient  tuberculosis  to  die.    A  large  per- 
centage of  them  can  get  well  if  treated  prop- 
erly; but  to  give  them  the  best  chance  for 
11 


158  THE  BETTER  CITY 

getting  well  the  disease  must  be  discovered 
early.  When  this  is  done  and  the  patient 
is  made  aware  of  its  presence  and  instructed 
how  to  care  for  his  expectoration,  almost  the 
only  source  for  spreading  the  disease  has  been 
removed. 

In  addition  to  the  local  work,  a  settlement 
has  been  established  at  Redlands,  and  plans 
have  been  laid  for  the  creation  of  another 
health  camp  in  the  foothills  near  Pasadena. 

The  California  Club  is  at  this  time  working 
for  the  passage  of  a  law  making  it  possible 
to  establish  a  state  sanitarium  for  the  treat- 
ment of  tuberculosis,  thus  placing  the  possi- 
bility of  a  cure  within  the  reach  of  every  af- 
flicted one  in  the  state,  as  has  already  been 
done  in  several  Eastern  commonwealths. 

The  question  arises  as  to  whether  Califor- 
nia ought  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  large  num- 
ber of  indigent  Eastern  patients  who  come 
here  for  the  climate  or  as  a  last  resort.  Does 
California  offer  a  surer  cure  than  can  be  found 
in  the  Eastern  States?  Dr.  Woods  Hutchison, 
physician  at  the  Arrowhead  Sanitarium,  gives 
the  following  advice  as  to  the  value  of  climate 
in  the  treatment  of  patients.  "To  put  it  briefly, 
I  believe  that  climate  is  of  little  importance  in 
the  treatment  of  tuberculosis,  inasmuch  as  the 
disease  can  be  cured  in  apparently  as  large  per- 
centage of  cases  and  as  promptly  in  northern 
and  eastern  climates  as  in  any  of  the  so-called 
health  resorts,  provided  that  the  open-air 


SEEKING  HEALTH  159 

treatment  is  rigidly  carried  out.  Fresh  air 
properly  and  thoroughly  applied  will  cure  tu- 
berculosis in  any  known  climate.  I  have  per- 
sonally seen  just  as  satisfactory  results  in  the 
suburbs  of  London,  in  the  Adirondacks,  in 
Illinois,  in  Iowa  and  in  Western  Oregon  as  in 
California  or  in  Arizona.  The  only  value  of 
climate  in  the  treatment  of  the  disease  is  that 
a  mild  sunshiny  climate  makes  the  open-air 
cure  easier  and  more  pleasant  to  take — sugar- 
coats  the  pill,  as  it  were.  If  the  patient  be 
compelled  to  take  the  open-air  treatment 
whether  he  like  it  or  not,  he  will  recover  in 
any  climate.  I  am  also  inclined  to  think  that 
patients  who  are  cured  in  a  northern  or  eastern 
climate  are  decidedly  less  liable  to  relapse 
than  those  returning  to  their  climate  after  a 
cure  effected  in  the  South.  The  mass  of  tuber- 
culosis patients  should  be  treated  in  or  near 
their  homes,  and  the  southern  and  south- 
western climates  used  only  as  a  luxury  for 
those  who  can  afford  them."  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  prominent  physicians  who 
claim  that  away  from  the  coast,  the  hillsides, 
with  their  dry,  balmy  air,  offer  ideal  places  for 
those  who  can  live  without  work. 

Dr.  George  H.  Kress,  an  eminent  physi- 
cian of  Los  Angeles  and  a  thorough  student 
of  this  disease,  may  be  quoted  as  an  author- 
ity. He  says:  "Belief  in  the  specific  thera- 
peutic value  of  certain  climates  is  still  held 
not  only  by  a  large  mass  of  laymen,  but  also 


160  THE  BETTER  CITY 

by  a  goodly  proportion  of  medical  practition- 
ers. The  real  truth  of  the  matter  is  this :  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  specific  climate  in  tuber- 
culosis. Patients  suffering  from  that  disease 
get  well  in  all  kinds  of  climates,  only  of  course, 
certain  climates  possess  far  greater  advan- 
tages than  others.  It  is  not  so  much  a  ques- 
tion of  what  climate,  but  how  a  climate  is 
used  that  is  of  the  first  importance.  Southern 
California,  for  instance,  owes  its  advantages  in 
the  treatment  of  this  disease  to  a  well-drained 
soil,  to  the  pure  air  coming  from  the  deserts 
and  ocean,  to  the  large  number  of  days  on 
which  the  sun  shines,  and  to  a  diurnal  tem- 
perature variation  which,  while  equitable  from 
day  to  day  the  year  round,  varies  sufficiently 
to  not  be  enervating,  so  that  a  tonic  outdoor 
life  may  be  constantly  led." 

Los  Angeles  has  also  an  association  of  benev- 
olent individuals  working  toward  a  saner 
treatment  of  epileptics.  Hitherto  epilepsy  has 
been  regarded  as  almost  incurable.  In  Califor- 
nia these  unfortunates  are  found  in  prisons, 
reformatories,  asylums,  homes  for  the  feeble- 
minded or  in  their  own  homes.  A  few  of  the 
states  have  adopted  the  colony  idea,  where  on 
the  farm  with  good,  fresh  air  and  an  oppor- 
tunity to  work  without  danger,  they  have  a 
better  chance  for  recovery.  In  the  Craig 
Colony  at  Sonyea,  New  York,  1200  of  New 
York's  epileptics  are  living  on  a  2000-acre 
farm,  helping  largely  in  their  own  support. 


SEEKING   HEALTH  161 

Seven  per  cent  of  the  chronic  cases  are  re- 
turned to  their  homes  as  cured.  If  incipient 
cases  were  included,  a  much  larger  percentage 
of  cure  would  result.  Those  who  are  especi- 
ally interested  in  the  study  of  this  disease  be- 
lieve that  epilepsy  will  soon  be  numbered 
among  the  curable  diseases.  As  soon  as  suf- 
ficient money  can  be  raised,  it  is  the  purpose 
of  the  Los  Angeles  association  to  secure  a 
ranch  and  establish  under  expert  management 
a  colony  for  epileptics  which  will  be  a  place  for 
the  study  of  causes  and  methods  of  cure,  as 
well  as  for  the  treatment  of  patients.  It  is 
surely  a  sign  of  the  increase  of  the  altruistic 
spirit  when  so  much  attention  is  given  to  the 
treatment  of  diseases  once  considered  incur- 
able. The  self-sacrifice  of  physicians  and  lay- 
men in  seeking  to  help  a  class  of  unfortunates, 
too  long  neglected,  is  worthy  of  as  great  honor 
as  that  shown  to  the  heroes  of  war. 

Owing  to  the  fame  of  our  California  climate, 
a  large  number  of  invalids  come  hither  every 
year  seeking  health.  To  meet  the  demand  of 
the  many  well-to-do  patients,  a  number  of 
magnificent  hospitals  have  been  erected  in  Los 
Angeles,  thoroughly  scientific  and  up-to-date. 
Yet  in  all  these  hospitals  there  are  but  few  free 
beds.  There  is  one  notable  exception — the 
Children's  Hospital  on  Alpine  Street.  Here  in 
their  own  building,  a  large  number  of  ladies 
are  seeking  to  make  it  possible  that  every  suf- 
fering child  who  cannot  receive  proper  treat- 


162  THE  BETTER  CITY 

ment  at  home,  may  have  the  best  of  care  and 
be  nursed  back  again  to  perfect  health.  A 
nurse  from  this  place  also  visits  sick  children 
in  their  homes,  thus  extending  more  widely 
this  blessed  ministry  to  God's  little  ones. 

What  private  philanthropy  has  not  done  for 
the  indigent  sufferer  of  this  Southland,  the 
city  and  county  are  doing,  and  are  doing  well. 
The  climate  which  draws  the  rich  from  the 
colder  regions  also  attracts  the  poor.  Among 
the  latter  are  many  sick  ones  who  have  sold  all 
they  have  in  order  to  purchase  a  ticket  to  Cali- 
fornia. Hence  a  large  number  of  the  inmates 
of  the  County  Hospital  are  newcomers.  In 
the  hospitals  here,  as  in  all  other  city  and 
county  hospitals,  besides  the  self-respecting 
poor  there  are  to  be  found  the  stranded  wrecks 
of  humanity — the  scarlet  woman  ending  her 
life  of  suffering,  the  wretched  syphilitic  and 
inebriate  cases  reaping  the  harvest  of  wild  oats 
sown  in  youth. 

The  reform  of  the  city  poor-house  is  a  sub- 
ject which  is  attracting  the  attention  of  all 
social  workers.  The  old  work-house  system 
with  its  obvious  evils  is  gradually  giving  way 
to  modern  methods.  The  Los  Angeles  County 
Farm  occupies  a  beautiful  site,  with  orange 
and  pepper,  banana  and  palm  trees,  and  the 
choicest  flowers.  There  aged  men  and  women 
can  walk  daily  in  the  midst  of  a  landscape  such 
as  money  cannot  buy  in  the  East  during  win- 
ter. An  out-of-door  life  in  Southern  California 


SEEKING  HEALTH  163 

means  comfort  for  aged  poor.  No  land  offers 
a  better  place  in  which  to  grow  old,  for  here 
there  are  no  extremes  of  heat  and  cold  and  the 
many  sunshiny  days  make  life  a  delight.  The 
Soldier's  Home  near  the  city  furnishes  an  ex- 
ample of  how  the  worn-out  soldier  may  have 
the  best  that  nature  affords.  From  the  large 
airy  buildings  beautiful  vista  effects  are  to  be 
had  in  every  direction,  and  long  lines  of  rarest 
trees  and  semi-tropical  plants  are  bordered  by 
great  stretches  of  velvety  lawn.  Hundreds  of 
the  old  soldiers  are  there  ending  their  days 
among  beauties  of  nature  rarely  equaled  else- 
where. 

To  few  do  the  following  words  of  Long- 
fellow more  aptly  apply  than  to  the  fortunate 
ones  who  are  members  of  the  Hollenbeck 
Home  for  the  aged  on  Boyle  Heights : 

"The  night  hath  not  come  yet;  we  are  not  quite 

Cut  off  from  labor  by  the  falling  light; 

Something  remains  for  us  to  do  or  dare, 

Even  the  oldest  tree  some  fruit  may  bear, 

For  age  is  opportunity,  no  less, 

No  less  than  youth  itself,  though  in  another  dress, 

And    as    the    evening   twilight   fades    away 

The  sky  is  filled  with  stars  invisible  by  day." 

Because  of  the  entrance  fee  of  $300,  and  the 
care  taken  in  the  selection  of  those  who  are  to 
enter,  there  are  gathered  here  a  group  of  cul- 
tured and  refined  men  and  women  in  the  midst 


164  THE  BETTER  CITY 

of  comfort  and  surrounded  by  grounds  fit  for 
a  king's  palace.  The  view  from  the  Home  ex- 
tends from  the  snow-capped  mountains  almost 
to  the  sea.  Growing  old  in  California  is  not 
something  to  be  feared.  After  a  strenuous  life 
one  may  have  here  a  time  of  the  greatest  en- 
joyment. 

Full  well  have  the  Catholic  Sisterhoods  la- 
bored with  untiring  zeal  and  self-sacrifice  for 
the  orphans,  the  wayward  girls,  and  the  aged 
poor.  The  Sisters  of  Mercy  and  the  Little 
Sisters  of  the  Poor  have  recently  secured  com- 
modious buildings  where  they  will  carry  on  a 
work  like  that  of  the  good  Shepherd  Himself. 
The  followers  of  Frederick  Ozanam  in  the 
Conference  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  are  in  a 
quiet  way  reaching  hundreds  of  the  poor  and 
aged,  and  bringing  them  comfort  and  consola- 
tion in  their  homes. 

We  cannot  close  this  chapter  on  seeking 
health  without  a  word  concerning  the  mental 
attitude  which  ought  to  be  maintained.  The 
fear  of  sickness  and  death  has  brought  many  a 
man  to  realize  "that  which  I  feared  has  come 
upon  me."  The  fear  of  contagion  creates  a 
soil  prepared  for  the  propagation  of  disease 
germs.  Every  plague  has  its  thousands  of  fear 
victims.  A  man  may  become  practically  im- 
mune by  banishing  fear,  living  a  clean  life,  a 
normal  life  of  loving  service.  By  talking 
health  and  thinking  health  we  may  become 


SEEKING  HEALTH  165 

benefactors  to  our  race.  Certainly  in  seeking 
health  and  happiness  for  ourselves  and  others, 
we  will  have  no  small  part  in  making  this  a 
better  city. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  NON-PARTISAN 

The  modern  city  is  not  a  model  city.  The 
simple  life  of  our  forefathers  has  become  com- 
plex. The  social,  economic,  and  even  the 
religious  life  have  been  changed  by  the  in- 
coming of  a  new  industrial  life.  The  popular 
town  meeting  has  been  replaced  by  the  boss- 
ruled  party  caucus.  Were  it  not  for  the 
dreamers  and  seers  who  prophesy  a  better 
city  for  the  future,  the  outlook  would  be  not 
only  sad,  but  serious.  A  few  years  ago,  a 
small  group  of  social  thinkers  had  visions  of 
a  new  social  democracy  and  they  began  at 
once  making  history,  believing  that  a  vision 
is  the  spiritual  forecast  of  God's  higher  plan 
for  mankind. 

To  the  student  of  sociology  there  is  no 
more  significant  chapter  than  that  which  de- 
scribes the  downward  course  of  the  city  in  the 
years  following  the  Civil  War,  when  a  few 
men  began  to  amass  large  fortunes,  importing 
cheap  labor  and  exploiting  the  working  class 
in  their  own  interest.  It  was  then  that  the 
tenement  house  and  the  slum  seemed  neces- 
sities, the  public  not  realizing  that  to  sow  a 
slum  meant  to  reap  an  epidemic.  Then  it  was 
that  politics  became  so  corrupt  that  an  honest 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  167 

man  did  not  care  to  run  for  office,  and  an 
oligarchy  of  misrule  was  established  in  all  of 
our  cities. 

Looked  at  from  our  present-day  standpoint, 
the  intense  individualism  of  a  few  decades  ago 
seemed  to  produce  results  which  were  devoid 
of  either  social  or  ethical  value.  Yet  the 
forces  of  righteousness  were  powerful  and  ex- 
tensive. Great  revivals  of  religion  swept 
through  the  cities ;  mighty  philanthropies  were 
established  by  private  initiative.  One  has  only 
to  read  such  a  book  as  "The  Better  New 
York/'*  describing  the  humanitarian  efforts  of 
that  great  city,  to  realize  the  extent  to  which 
large-hearted  men  and  women  have  given 
themselves  in  service  for  their  fellow  men. 
Filled  with  altruistic  zeal,  many  were  the  noble 
souls  who  devoted  themselves  to  rescue  work 
and  deeds  of  charity.  Most  of  the  movements 
at  this  time  were  individualistic  rather  than 
social,  saving  a  few  out  of  the  wreck,  rather 
than  charting  the  channel.  The  first  great 
step  forward  consisted  in  organizing  charity 
to  prevent  waste,  and  in  beginning  the  study 
of  the  causes  of  poverty.  During  this  time 
politics  were  degenerating.  "To  the  victors 
belong  the  spoil,"  was  the  motto  adopted,  and 
well  it  was  lived  up  to.  Partyism  was  placed 


*"The  Better  New  York,"  published  by  the  Baker 
&  Taylor  Co.,  of  New  York.  It  suggested  the  title 
of  this  volume,  "The  Better  City." 


168  THE  BETTER  CITY 

before  patriotism,  resulting  in  graft  and  mis- 
rule in  every  great  city  in  the  land.  But  the 
day  was  darkest  just  before  dawn.  A  few 
brave  souls,  catching  the  spirit  of  Andrew 
Toynbee,  sought  residence  in  the  most  con- 
gested parts  of  the  great  cities,  to  do  their 
part  in  the  work  of  social  reconstruction.  The 
story  of  the  great  achievements  of  social  set- 
tlements and  institutional  churches  is  familiar 
to  all.  With  the  social  conscience  once 
aroused,  it  was  seen  that  it  was  not  enough 
simply  to  save  this  group  or  that  neighbor- 
hood, but  that  efforts  must  be  put  forth  to 
check  the  forces  of  evil  which  were  in  power  in 
every  great  city.  Agitation,  resulting  in 
sporadic  attempts  to  drive  the  rascals  out  of 
office  followed.  The  work  for  civic  betterment 
at  length  began  to  take  form  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  Civic  Associations.  Far  reaching  in 
their  helpfulness  in  social  uplift,  the  American 
Civic  Associations  had  as  their  aim  "to  make 
cities  and  towns  and  villages  clean,  healthful 
and  attractive  places  in  which  to  live;  to  ex- 
tend the  making  of  parks  in  all  communities; 
to  promote  the  work  of  making  playgrounds 
for  the  children  and  recreation  centers  for 
adults;  to  abate  public  nuisances — such  as  ob- 
jectionable advertising  signs,  unnecessary  elec- 
tric poles  and  wires,  and  unpleasant  and  waste- 
ful smoking  factory  chimneys ;  to  make  rail- 
way stations  and  factories  and  the  grounds 
surrounding  them  tidy  and  ornamental;  to 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  169 

preserve  existing  trees  and  encourage  intelli- 
gent tree  planting."  Great  as  was  this  move- 
ment, it  did  not  quite  reach  the  sources  of  the 
evil  affecting  city  life.  Jacob  Riis'  ten  years' 
war  to  cleanse  the  slum  was  to  be  duplicated 
by  as  vigorous  an  effort  to  cleanse  the  city 
hall. 

Progress  toward  the  better  city  is  being 
surely  though  slowly  made.  The  various  re- 
form movements  which  were  quite  distinct  at 
their  inception,  soon  merged  into  one  another, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  usually  the  same  group  of 
men  with  large  ideas  which  organized  the 
newer  and  more  inclusive  movements.  The 
great  philanthropists  of  an  earlier  age  gave 
themselves  in  an  earnest  effort  for  individual 
and  group  redemption.  Charity  had  become 
organized  for  the  first  time,  the  great  host  of 
charity  workers  forming  a  clearing  house  that 
business  principles  might  be  applied  to  the 
handling  of  the  vast  sums  of  money  entrusted 
to  them.  At  the  same  time  they  introduced 
the  friendly  visitor,  who  furnished  the  human 
touch  to  the  otherwise  colder  work  of  official- 
ism. "To  make  for  the  social  good  is  her  one 
desire.  To  preach  the  social  good  is  her  one 
message"  is  written  of  Jane  Addams,  who  is 
the  best  type  of  the  worker  in  the  great  move- 
ment for  social  regeneration.  This  class  of 
workers  do  not  bend  down  to  a  lower  group; 
they  do  not  study  their  neighbors  as  specimens 
in  a  museum;  but  contrarywise,  living  their 


170  THE  BETTER  CITY 

lives  in  a  new  environment ;  having  something 
to  give  and  much  to  receive ;  dealing  with 
those  around  them  just  as  "folks,"  every  one 
of  them  capable  of  contributing  something  to 
the  good  of  all.  As  a  non-Christian  land  can 
never  become  Christian  except  by  the  coopera- 
tion and  leadership  of  the  natives  of  that  land, 
so  in  city  life,  the  better  day  will  come  only 
when  those  whom  we  sometimes  call  the  com- 
mon people  are  inspired  to  cooperate  with  their 
leaders  in  striving  after  the  higher  civic  ideals. 
The  social  worker  is  an  inspirer.  The  man 
that  does  the  thing  worth  doing  may  come 
from  the  lower  strata  of  society.  The  great 
mass  of  working  men  are  beginning  to  think, 
and  this  will  finally  result  in  the  overthrow 
of  social  and  economic  evils. 

Considering  that  life  is  more  than  meat,  and 
that  health  and  happiness  are  the  birthright 
of  every  man,  the  people  call  loudly  for  civic 
betterment  and  the  City  Beautiful.  That  call 
is  answered  by  such  men  as  Charles  Zueblin, 
Daniel  H.  Burnham  and  Charles  M.  Robinson. 
It  is  answered  by  the  birth  of  a  new  social 
spirit.  After  years  of  bitter  competition  in  the 
amassing  of  fortunes,  the  cooperative  move- 
ment is  at  last  taking  form.  After  years  of 
graft,  the  altruistic  spirit  is  manifesting  itself. 
After  individual  struggle  for  supremacy  in 
trade  and  politics,  we  behold  ever-enlarging 
groups  of  citizens  at  work  in  making  the  mod- 
ern city  better  than  the  vision  of  the  best  a 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  171 

hundred  years  ago.  The  world  is  growing  bet- 
ter. No  man  can  be  a  pessimist  who  realizes 
something  of  the  spirit  of  the  times.  A  local 
editor  puts  it  thus  tersely  in  these  words  : 
"Every  today  is  a  good  day.  Every  tomorrow 
will  be  a  better  day  to  the  man  whose  nature 
is  sound  and  hdpeful.  Mankind  advances  as 
the  tides  of  the  ocean.  Waves  of  advancement 
sweep  up  the  beach  of  time,  each  a  little 
higher,  but  each  meantime  receding  to  gain  a 
greater  impetus.  When  the  country  seems 
stagnant  or  retrograding,  it  is  only  gathering 
for  a  wider  wave  sweep  of  progress."  It  was 
said  of  Mayor  Jones  of  Toledo,  the  "man  of  the 
Golden  Rule,"  that  he  made  citizenship  relig- 
ious. He  himself  became  a  humanizing  in- 
fluence, the  common  denominator  between  all 
classes.  There  are  men  today  who  love  their 
city,  and  work  for  it  just  as  zealously  and 
religiously  as  those  who  gave  their  lives  as 
missionaries  to  the  cannibal  islands. 

As  never  before,  the  call  is  for  men ;  for  un- 
lettered laborers  as  well  as  for  university 
graduates;  for  men  who  can  free  themselves 
from  the  power  of  the  trusts  and  the  party 
boss ;  for  men  who  are  not  afraid  of  democ- 
racy; for  men  who  are  awake  to  the  evils  of 
turning  over  the  city  government  to  the  great 
corporations  such  as  the  railroads,  the  street 
car  companies,  and  the  breweries ;  for  men  who 
can  gird  themselves  to  struggle  for  the  re- 
demption of  the  city  from  the  grasp  of  these 


172  THE  BETTER  CITY 

alien  powers,  that  they  may  give  it  back  again 
to  the  people;  for  men  who  realize  that  there 
is  no  necessary  connection  between  national 
policies  and  city  government,  and  that  the 
party  caucus,  primary  and  convention,  with 
prearranged  programs  spell  bondage  rather 
than  freedom ;  for  men  who  will  champion  the 
rights  of  the  average  citizen,  and  will  demand 
clean  hands  in  city  government,  and  who  instead 
of  saying,  "my  party  right  or  wrong"  will  rather 
say,  "the  best  interests  of  my  city,  first  and 
last  and  all  the  time." 

While  not  the  first  city  to  declare  itself  for 
complete  nonpartisanship  in  city  politics,  the 
story  of  the  partial  victory  of  the  city  of  Los 
Angeles  may  well  encourage  other  cities  to 
enter  upon  this  latest  movement  in  social  serv- 
ice and  civic  betterment  with  a  heart  of  hope. 
Some  two  years  ago,  largely  through  the  in- 
itiative of  the  Municipal  League,  a  strong  non- 
partisan  school  board  was  nominated  and 
elected,  thus  taking  the  city  schools  out  of 
politics.  Under  the  new  charter  the  Water 
Board  and  the  Board  of  Public  Works  were 
removed  from  politics,  and  both  boards  were 
filled  by  some  of  the  ablest  and  strongest  busi- 
ness men  of  the  city.  Public  opinion  is  now 
so  strong  in  this  city  that  no  mayor  or  council 
would  dare  to  appoint  a  corrupt  or  incompe- 
tent man  on  either  board.  About  one  year 
ago,  a  group  of  young  business  and  profes- 
sional men,  mostly  college  men,  began  the 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  173 

movement  for  the  nomination  of  a  non-parti- 
san ticket,  and  last  July  the  Committee  of 
One  Hundred  was  organized,  composed  of 
strong  and  influential  men.  This  committee 
through  a  strong  executive  committee  began 
at  once  the  selection  of  candidates.  Meeting 
almost  nightly  for  weeks  and  even  months, 
they  discussed  name  after  name  for  every  of- 
fice, not  asking  who  wanted  a  particular  of- 
fice, but  who  was  best  fitted  to  perform  its 
duties.  They  searched  the  city  through  and 
through,  asking  advice  of  every  one,  probing 
the  character,  and  looking  into  the  history  of 
every  available  candidate.  How  different  this 
way  from  the  customary  method  of  forming  a 
slate  in  the  back  room  of  a  saloon!  They 
completed  their  work  before  the  party  conven- 
tions convened,  with  the  result  that. they  suc- 
ceeded in  placing  some  of  the  non-partisans  on 
the  party  tickets.  On  December  4,  sixteen  out 
of  twenty-three  non-partisans  were  elected. 

The  campaign  was  strenuous  and  some  of 
the  newspapers  did  valiant  work  for  the  cause 
of  freedom.  From  the  first  the  committee 
avoided  personalities  and  the  adoption  of  ordi- 
nary political  methods,  conducting  rather  a 
campaign  of  education  by  pamphlet  and  public 
addresses.  Hundreds  of  strong  speeches  were 
delivered  in  halls  and  factories  and  in  open  air. 
Their  manifestos  were  prefaced  by  words  of 
leaders  in  American  politics,  like  the  follow- 
ing from  President  Roosevelt:  "The  worst 
12 


174  THE  BETTER  CITY 

evils  that  can  affect  our  local  government  arise 
from,  and  are  the  inevitable  result  of,  the  mix- 
ing up  of  city  affairs  with  party  politics  of  the 
state  and  nation.  The  lines  upon  which  na- 
tional parties  divide  have  no  necessary  con- 
nection with  the  business  of  a  city.  Such 
connection  opens  the  way  to  countless  schemes 
of  public  plunder  and  civic  corruption."  Again 
in  the  words  of  Robert  M.  La  Follette :  "The 
intelligent  and  patriotic  citizen  will  no  longer 
allow  himself  to  be  played  as  a  pawn  in  party 
politics  to  enrich  the  grafter.  Party  politics 
should  have  no  place  in  a  conflict  with  those 
who  assail  the  life  principles  of  our  govern- 
ment. Before  all  things  else,  the  honest  voter 
— Republican  or  Democrat — must  hold  price- 
less this  vital  principle :  the  public  official  must 
faithfully  represent  the  citizen." 

The  expressions  of  opinion  of  many  inter- 
ested in  the  campaign  were  significant,  and  as 
this  was  the  initial  campaign  in  this  city  for 
the  breaking  down  of  party  power,  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  movement  in  the  country  at 
large,  their  utterances  are  worth  remembering. 
A  local  judge  wrote :  "The  city  of  Los  An- 
geles is  today  truly  a  modern  city,  with  a 
twentieth  century  charter  and  a  twentieth  cen- 
tury ambition.  Her  affairs  are  the  affairs  of 
a  big  corporation.  Her  business  cannot  be 
managed  by  little  minds.  Merely  to  maintain 
cleanliness  and  order  in  such  a  city  requires  a 
high  order  of  fidelity  and  ability.  The  politi- 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  175 

cal  affairs  of  a  city  are  not  the  affairs  of  a 
political  national  party.  While  parties  in  city 
government  may  and  will  exist,  they  must  be- 
come purely  municipal  parties  if  they  are  to 
be  beneficial  to  the  city." 

"An  independent  movement  of  citizens  to 
elect  city  officers  is  not  an  anti-party  move- 
ment. It  is  just  a  step  toward  municipal  party 
organization.  It  means  that  the  citizens  have 
some  initiative  force,  and  intend  to  apply  that 
force  where  it  will  do  some  good." 

"I  believe  that  in  the  not  far  distant  future, 
municipal  parties  will  regularly  exist  for  the 
settlement  of  municipal  policies,  and  for  the 
election  of  officers  to  administer  them ;  that  in 
those  days  party  nominations  will  be  made  by 
direct  vote  of  the  people ;  that  conventions  will 
be  restricted  to  their  proper  functions  of  de- 
claring party  principles,  and  promoting  the 
success  of  those  measures  to  which  the  party 
has  committed  itself.  Under  those  conditions 
a  city  will  not  have  any  boss  office  distributor. 
Its  bosses  will  be  men  whom  the  people  have 
chosen,  and  not  those  who  have  chosen  them- 
selves to  rule  over  the  people." 

A  well-known  capitalist  puts  the  matter 
thus:  The  non-partisan  movement  is  a  good 
one.  The  situation  demands  it.  It  is  sane  and 
in  harmony  with  the  best  interests  of  the  city. 
In  older  communities  representative  men,  well 
qualified  for  such  work  are  often  willing  to 
take  upon  themselves  civic  responsibilities  and 


176  THE  BETTER  CITY 

often  there  are  enough  of  these  in  either  party 
to  secure  a  reasonably  safe  administration. 
But  in  this  city  where  the  business  situation 
is  tense,  where  each  year's  development  ex- 
ceeds the  expectations  of  the  most  enthusiastic 
and  where  men  are  giving  attention  only  to 
their  personal  business  there  comes  the  chance 
for  political  manipulation. 

"Under  the  guise  of  party  the  most  unstable 
men  are  pushed  into  high  offices — men  whose 
previous  business  experience  or  mental  stam- 
ina renders  them  totally  unfit  for  office.  Some- 
thing that  will  take  the  management  of  city 
affairs  out  of  the  hands  of  men  of  small  calibre 
and  the  bosses,  is  demanded. 

"Our  city  affairs  are  now  of  such  propor- 
tions, and  the  funds  handled  are  so  tremend- 
ously large,  and  the  business  interests  are  so 
critical  that  none  but  the  best  men,  morally 
and  from  the  standpoint  of  business  ability, 
should  be  put  in  power.  Experience  tells  that 
we  cannot  get  that  class  of  men  from  our 
party  machines. 

"The  non-partisan  movement,  it  is  evident, 
is  not  in  the  interests  of  any  clique  or  indi- 
vidual, but  for  the  general  public  welfare.  It 
should  command  the  careful  thought  and 
hearty  cooperation  of  all  citizens." 

A  clergyman  offered  the  following  ethical 
argument:  "A  new  spirit  is  in  the  air.  It  is 
the  altruistic  and  the  practical.  As  there  is 
always  a  man  behind  every  great  institution, 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  177 

so  there  will  be  a  man  or  men  behind  this  new 
movement,  strongly  dominated  by  the  spirit 
of  civic  righteousness.  The  members  of  the 
Committee  of  One  Hundred  are  evidently  the 
men  for  the  occasion.  They  are  largely  young 
men  who  have  never  been  connected  with  the 
machine,  but  are  willing  in  an  unselfish  way 
to  work  for  the  public  good. 

"Our  best  citizens  have  been  busy  in  mak- 
ing money,  in  building  up  professional  reputa- 
tions, in  using  their  leisure  for  merely  personal 
recreation.  Many  of  the  idle  rich  are  seeking 
everywhere  for  some  new  form  of  pleasure, 
and  do  not  realize  that  he  who  serves  his  fel- 
low men  is  the  one  to  whom  comes  the  greatest 
pleasure.  This  is  what  makes  life  worth  the 
living. 

"There  is  something  better  than  mere 
money  making;  better  than  the  making  of  a 
great  reputation;  better  than  the  mere  killing 
of  time.  It  is  found  in  social  service — talents 
used  for  the  good  of  all;  spare  time  used  for 
the  social  uplift;  earnest  thought  devoted  to 
the  changing  of  evil  conditions  and  bad  en- 
vironment; ability  along  commercial  lines 
freely  given  in  solving  the  financial  problems 
of  a  great  city.  There  is  a  rising  tide  of  broth- 
erly kindness,  and  this  reveals  itself  in  some- 
thing more  than  charity.  The  world  needs 
not  the  dole  for  today,  but  more  real  love  be- 
tween man  and  man.  It  is  a  sign  of  the  times 


178  THE  BETTER  CITY 

that  we  find  some  of  the  best  people  of  our 
land  interested  in  Ward  Improvement  Asso- 
ciations; housing  committees;  in  planning 
practical  temperance  movements,  offering  sub- 
stitutes for  the  saloon;  in  law  enforcement;  in 
exploiting  graft;  in  social  settlement  work;  in 
the  study  of  municipal  ownership  and  coopera- 
tive schemes.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred  belong 
to  this  class." 

A  leading  banker,  strong  in  his  advocacy  of 
the  new  movement,  says :  "Purity  in  politics 
does  not,  as  I  understand  it,  express  the  full 
extent  and  scope  of  the  new  non-partisan 
movement.  In  its  truest  and  most  complete 
sense,  the  movement  means  the  election  to  of- 
fice of  men  whose  worth  has  been  established 
in  the  business  world,  who  have  proven  by  the 
management  of  their  own  affairs  their  fitness 
to  govern  those  of  the  municipality. 

"Ability  should  be  added  to  purity  in  the 
demands  of  the  non-partisan  party.  It  should 
demand  that  the  men  who  accept  office  should 
have  an  understanding  of  the  vast  and  vital 
interests  they  will  be  called  upon  to  influence 
after  their  election.  A  politician  may  be  ever 
so  honest  and  clean  in  the  commonplace  ac- 
ceptance of  the  term,  but  he  should  have  other 
qualifications  than  that  of  merely  having 
proved  useful  to  his  party  or  political  su- 
perior when  he  is  placed  in  a  position  of  trust 
in  a  city  like  Los  Angeles,  with  its  millions 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  179 

of  invested  money  and  great  business  enter- 
prises. 

"I  am  not  attacking  anyone,  but  I  feel  that 
the  city  is  entitled  to  the  best  material  it  can 
get.  I  feel  that  the  man  in  office  should  at 
least  have  as  much  business  experience  as  the 
man  who  has  managed  some  private  enterprise 
and  managed  it  successfully.  Such  a  man 
would  not  only  be  pure,  in  the  acceptance  of 
the  term  as  applied  to  the  present  movement, 
but  should  be  competent. 

"The  following  is  from  a  well-known  educa- 
tor :  Prominent  men  of  high  standing  will  not 
run  for  municipal  office  upon  party  tickets. 
We  have  plenty  of  good  men  who  would  have 
the  complete  confidence  and  almost  unanimous 
support  of  citizens  if  they  should  consent  to 
become  candidates,  but  they  refuse  to  descend 
into  the  muck  of  machine  politics.  This  is 
one  of  the  reasons  why  party  lines  should  be 
done  away  with  locally.  Chosen  by  the  people 
and  promised  the  support  as  citizens'  candi- 
dates, clean  business  men  will  be  found  to 
take  up  these  burdens  as  duties. 

"The  non-partisan  movement  is  the  solu- 
tion. Los  Angeles  sadly  needs  men  of  good 
principle,  of  known  integrity;  men  with  rigid 
spinal  columns  and  business  ability  to  admin- 
ister her  affairs  in  the  cause  of  good  govern- 
ment. I  have  talked  with  many  such  men  and 
all  declare  that  they  could  not  be  induced  to 
enter  the  way  of  deceit,  lies,  and  mud  slinging 


180  THE  BETTER  CITY 

into  which  machine  candidates  are  plunged 
from  the  very  start.  But  these  same  men  of 
honor  can  be  induced  to  run  through  a  clean 
movement  of  non-partisan  character.  I  believe 
that  we  are  going  to  see  noble  men  who  have 
the  respect  of  the  entire  city  put  into  office." 

The  following  quotation  is  taken  from  the 
declaration  of  a  retired  capitalist :  "The  day  of 
ringsters  is  passed.  The  people  have  arisen 
and  declared  that  they  will  be  independent  in 
their  voting,  putting  into  office  the  candidates 
of  their  choice.  The  whole  people  never  will 
go  wrong  on  a  proposition  of  this  character. 
Now  that  they  are  doing  their  own  thinking, 
their  own  nominating,  and  their  own  voting, 
the  very  best  type  of  men  will  be  put  into 
office. 

"The  non-partisan  spirit  is  gaining  force 
throughout  the  country  daily.  The  movement 
for  a  general  clean-up  along  political  lines  is 
gaining  and  the  people  themselves  are  going 
to  see  that  the  anti-political  remedy  is  admin- 
istered in  large  doses.  Experience  has  proved 
to  my  satisfaction  that  politics  in  municipal 
affairs  is  a  detriment  to  good  government  and 
should  not  be  tolerated  for  a  moment.  I  be- 
lieve that  Los  Angeles  is  going  to  rise  above 
party  lines  and  I  expect  to  see  the  city  advance 
rapidly  under  a  business  administration." 

To  the  same  effect  are  the  words  of  a  promi- 
nent attorney:  "The  awakening  of  the  people 
all  over  the  country  to  corruption  in  public 


THE   NON-PARTISAN  181 

affairs  is  an  encouraging  thing  in  our  political 
life.  We  see  that  our  form  of  government  in 
which  each  individual  is  accorded  equal  rights, 
is  controlled  by  public  opinion,  instead  of  be- 
ing controlled  by  a  few  minds  as  is  usually  the 
case  in  other  forms  of  government.  This  pub- 
lic sentiment  is  irresistible  in  its  power.  It  is 
this  power  which  has  throttled  the  trusts  in 
tobacco,  paper,  gunpowder  and  fertilizers,  and 
has  convicted  the  meat  packers,  and  made  the 
great  railroad  corporations  yield  in  their  re- 
bates. 

"The  same  powerful  force  during  the  last 
few  years  has  lifted  our  city  from  much  of  the 
grafting  of  the  past  and  is  educating  public 
sentiment  here  so  that  we  may  have  better 
service,  better  work  for  the  expenditures  and  a 
much  improved  civic  tone.  The  independent 
citizen  is  directly  responsible  for  this  improve- 
ment. Party  lines  can  no  longer  hold  the  in- 
dependent and  intelligent  voters  to  party 
tickets  in  local  affairs." 

The  campaign  of  1906  is  ended.  The  people 
have  spoken,  but  the  real  work  has  just  begun. 
The  Committee  of  One  Hundred  has  not  dis- 
banded, but  is  more  active  than  ever  in  a 
campaign  of  education.  Three  years  more  of 
this  leadership  and  the  politicians  of  this  city 
will  not  dare  to  stand  for  else  than  the  broad 
principle  of  non-partisanship  in  municipal  af- 
fairs. 

In  social  settlement,  in  church,  in  club,  and 


182  THE  BETTER  CITY 

on  the  platform,  the  theme  which  awakens  the 
greatest  enthusiasm  today  is  that  of  the  Better 
City.  But  the  vision  must  become  the  reality. 
Hitherto  we  have  abdicated  as  sovereign  citi- 
zens in  favor  of  self-appointed  bosses,  content 
to  vote  for  the  party  nominee,  regardless  of 
his  character.  "I  once  thought,"  said  a  young 
Italian  voter  during  the  last  campaign,  "that 
all  there  was  to  an  election  was  the  casting  of 
your  vote.  Now  I  know  that  politics  is  a  great 
study."  By  this  he  meant  that  to  secure  the 
largest  number  of  votes  for  his  party,  that  he 
might  be  in  on  the  larger  graft,  required  care- 
ful scheming  and  shrewdness.  Politics  is  in- 
deed a  "study,"  but  it  should  be  a  study  in 
ethics. 

The  world  persists  in  calling  every  effort  for 
reform  and  for  the  establishment  of  civic  right- 
eousness, a  campaign  or  a  war.  Rather  let  us 
look  upon  it  as  the  spiritual  conception  of  his- 
tory; the  recognition  of  the  non-material 
forces  at  work  for  human  betterment;  the 
power  of  ideals ;  the  bringing  to  pass  of  the 
vision  of  the  few;  the  self-sacrifice  of  noble 
souls;  the  operation  of  unseen  divine  forces 
that  create  new  conditions.  No  one  can  claim 
to  be  the  originator  of  these  modern  move- 
ments. He  who  leads  is  the  one  who  has 
come  into  the  most  perfect  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  times;  the  one  who  feels  the 
mighty  uplift  of  the  unseen  forces,  and  who 
seeks  to  draw  others  into  the  same  noble  serv- 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  183 

ice.  God  and  right  are  no  more  on  the  side  of 
the  strongest  machines  than  they  are  on  the 
side  of  the  strongest  battalions.  Think,  my 
fellow  citizen,  on  those  things  that  make  for 
the  better  city;  join  hands  with  others  of  like 
mind  who  are  laboring  for  the  common  weal; 
rejoice  in  what  has  already  been  accomplished ; 
be  pure  and  lofty  in  purpose,  persistent  in 
effort,  and  remember  that  a  few  can  lead  a 
multitude. 

There  are  many  helpful  methods  that  have 
been  tried  or  suggested  for  securing  better 
city  government.  A  change  for  the  better  can 
be  made  by  the  elimination  of  the  voting  circle 
at  the  head  of  the  party  ticket ;  and  better  still, 
the  elimination  of  the  party  ticket  itself,  and 
the  substitution  of  an  arrangement  requiring  a 
mark  for  every  candidate  voted  on;  the  abso- 
lute elimination  of  every  distinguishing  mark 
on  the  ballot;  a  requirement  making  it  neces- 
sary for  every  candidate  to  be  nominated  by 
petition.  The  initiative  and  referendum,  with 
the  recall,  place  the  power  where  it  belongs — 
in  the  people's  hands. 

That  there  are  still  better  plans  to  be 
evolved,  no  one  doubts.  "Election  by  examina- 
tion is  the  beginning  of  election  by  education, 
which  Emerson  prophesied,"  says  Henry  De- 
morest  Lloyd.*  A  training  school  for  city  of- 
ficials may  become  as  necessary  and  as  com- 


*From  Lloyd's,  "Man,  the  Social  Creator." 


184  THE  BETTER  CITY 

mon  as  the  technical,  professional  or  commer- 
cial schools  are  now.  Why  not  have  men  care- 
fully prepared  in  mind  and  morals  so  that  the 
leaders  of  the  people  may  be  selected  instead 
of  elected  ?  This  is  truly  in  line  with  the  great 
movements  for  civic  betterment. 

The  experiment  of  a  city  government  by 
commission  is  now  being  tried  with  great  suc- 
cess in  Galveston  and  Houston,  Texas.  Fol- 
lowing the  great  hurricane  of  1900,  Galveston 
was  almost  forced  to  adopt  this  system  because 
of  the  chaotic  condition  of  the  city  govern- 
ment. A  mayor-president  and  four  commis- 
sioners have  full  charge  of  all  the  city  affairs, 
as  a  board  of  directors  might  have  in  any  well- 
managed  corporation.  All  other  elective  of- 
ficers have  been  abolished  and  the  whole  re- 
sponsibility is  placed  upon  this  board. 

This  new  plan  of  city  government  has  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  many  other  munici- 
palities with  a  result  that  three  states  have 
passed  laws  providing  for  commission  govern- 
ment based  on  this  Texas  idea.  Experts  re- 
gard as  best  the  modified  form  of  commission 
government,  which  will  become  effective  next 
March  in  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 

"Business,  not  politics,"  is  a  good  watch- 
word; but  "equality  of  opportunity"  is  a  bet- 
ter one.  It  is  the  inalienable  right  of  every 
man  to  make  the  best  of  himself;  to  breathe 
fresh  air;  to  live  in  a  sanitary  dwelling;  to 
be  able  to  enjoy  life  in  parks  and  on  boulevards ; 


THE  NON-PARTISAN  185 

to  have  the  best  of  schools  for  his  children, 
and  community  centers  for  refinement  and  cul- 
ture ;  to  secure  a  living  wage,  and  thus  be  able 
to  secure  the  greatest  of  all  blessings,  a  home 
for  his  family,  be  that  home  but  a  cottage  or  a 
bungalow.  When  every  citizen  comes  to  his 
own,  and  every  citizen  seeks  the  welfare  of 
every  other  citizen,  then  we  will  have  the 
Better  City. 


CHAPTER  X. 
INDUSTRIAL  LIFE 

"The  City  of  the  Angels,"  so  attractive  to 
the  tourists  because  of  climate  and  natural 
beauty,  is  fast  becoming  a  great  industrial 
center.  The  Panama  Canal  will  bring  the 
ships  of  the  world  to  its  own  harbor.  The 
awakening  of  the  nations  across  the  Pacific 
will  create  demands  for  goods  manufactured 
in  coast  cities.  Oil  fuel  is  at  hand,  trans- 
portation is  assured,  and  a  vast  market  is  be- 
ing opened.  Capital  will  quickly  respond,  and 
soon  the  loom  and  the  furnace  will  furnish 
products  for  a  new  world  of  commerce.  Al- 
ready great  industrial  plants  are  busy  day  and 
night  satisfying  the  demands  of  an  ever- 
widening  district. 

/But  the  growth  of  industrial  life  is  always 
fraught  with  grave  dangers.  The  industrial 
revolution  of  the  past  wrought  also  a  social 
revolution.  The  days  of  arcadian  simplicity 
on  the  ranchos  and  in  the  region  around  the 
Franciscan  missions  have  long  gone  by.  The 
call  of  the  factory  whistle  is  louder  and  more 
insistent  than  the  sweet  music  of  the  mission 
bells.  The  long  line  of  Indians  on  their  way 
to  the  morning  mass  is  now  replaced  by 
Vthrongs  of  laborers  rushing  to  their  daily  toil. 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  187 

The  farmer  boys  no  longer  look  forward  to 
the  time  when  they  own  a  ranch  of  their  own 
with  its  wealth  of  orange,  grape  and  peach — 
but  drawn  by  an  irresistible  power,  they  expect 
to  become  laborers  in  the  city  shop  and  mill, 
and  live  in  congested  quarters,  so  different 
from  the  open  life  on  the  farm.  Mastered'ty  "\ 
the  social  unrest  of  the  time,  they  will  be- 
come a  part  of  the  great  army  of  labor  fighting 
for  industrial  freedom,  and  will  perforce  have 
a  share  in  the  industrial  and  economic  prob- 
lems of  great  trade  centers  which  now  seem 
so  far  from  solution.  Already  the  conflict  is 
upon  us,  and  the  oligarchy  of  capital  is  ar- 
raying itself  against  labor  organized  in  self- 
defense. 

As  factories  increase  in  size  and  number, 
aliens  will  be  attracted,  tenements  and  house 
courts  will  become  congested,  causing  an  in- 
crease of  sickness  and  crime.  Industrial  acci- 
dents will  cripple  productive  power,  and  thus 
throw  heavy  burdens  on  public  charity 
and  private  philanthropy;  and  the  customary 
labor  of  women  and  children  in  factory  life 
will  tend  still  further  toward  the  deterioration 
of  home  life. 

Although  certain  evils  will  necessarily  fol- 
low the  extension  of  the  new  industrialism, 
this  city  will  not  lag  behind  in  its  efforts  to 
right  the  wrongs.  Moved  by  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  there  are  many  men  and  women  who 
with  loving  heart  and  altruistic  spirit  are 


188  THE  BETTER  CITY 

studying  modern  problems,  and  are  seeking  to 
apply  their  high  ideals  to  practical  life.  Wit- 
ness the  recent  non-partisan  movement;  the 
efforts  of  the  Park  Commission  to  provide 
parks  and  boulevards;  the  efforts  of  the  Civic 
Association  to  make  this  the  City  Beautiful; 
the  efforts  of  the  Housing  Commission  to  es- 
tablish by  law  a  new  type  of  houses  for  con- 
gested quarters;  the  work  of  the  labor  union 
and  the  socialist  body  in  their  efforts  to  better 
conditions  in  the  economic  world.  The  work 
of  these  and  many  other  similar  groups  re- 
veals the  fact  that  the  social  conscience  is 
aroused  and  conditions  can  never  again  be  as 
bad  as  of  old. 

There  are  three  parties  interested  in  the  solu- 
tion of  present-day  problems  of  industrial  life. 
They  are  the  employer,  the  employed  and  the 
general  public,  each  one  of  whom  is  more  or 
less  selfishly  interested,  and  all  of  whom  are 
working  either  blindly  or  intelligently  for  the 
good  of  all.  The  division  of  labor  in  modern 
factory  life  has  made  man  a  part  of  a  machine, 
known  by  number  rather  than  by  name.  "The 
man  with  a  number"  becomes  to  the  master 
a  man  without  a  soul,  for  under  this  method 
the  employer  loses  the  touch  of  human  inter- 
est and  the  sense  of  brotherhood,  and  there- 
fore forgets  entirely  the  spiritual  significance 
of  the  lives  that  are  devoted  to  his  service.  A 
better  day  is  surely  at  hand,  when  employers 
of  labor  will  give  more  attention  to  the  physi- 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  189 

cal  and  mental  needs  of  their  workmen.  "Wel- 
fare work"  this  is  called.  Selfish,  do  you  say? 
Yes,  so  it  is  often  confessed  to  be.  The  work 
of  the  social  secretary,  in  seeking  the  comfort 
and  to  some  extent  the  social  uplift  of  the 
employees,  makes  good  more  than  her  salary 
to  her  employer  in  the  increased  efficiency  of 
the  force.  A  recent  writer  in  the  Pacific  Mag- 
azine quotes  the  code  of  the  Superintendent  of 
the  Santa  Re  Reading  Room  System,  as  fol- 
lows :  "By  seeking  their  (employees')  moral, 
physical  and  financial  betterment,  a  greater 
measure  of  contentment  may  be  achieved,  and 
the  motive  for  seeking  their  welfare  and  happi- 
ness lies  intimate  to  the  success  of  the  opera- 
tion of  the  entire  system,  the  perfecting  of  the 
service,  the  reward  and  encouragement  of 
faithfulness  in  service.  By  making  our  men 
comfortable,  self-reliant,  by  building  up  their 
aspirations,  we  protect  our  property  and  our 
business.  The  management  recognizes  that 
we  are  one  family — the  success  of  one  is  the 
success  of  all.  We  close  a  good  deal  of  the 
gap  between  the  high  executive  official  and  the 
man  'way  out  on  the  line' ;  we  avoid  disastrous 
changes  in  the  service  and  incidentally  assure 
our  men  of  a  life  job  and  better  conditions ;  by 
affording  them  actual  opportunities  of  self- 
development,  or  bettering  their  education,  we 
contribute  to  home  making,  a  truer,  higher 
civic  condition,  and  ...  we  would  like  to 


13 


190  THE  BETTER  CITY 

have  our  men  bound  to  the  company  by  ties 
of  regard  rather  than  those  of  necessity." 

This  is  selfish  interest,  perhaps  selfishness. 
More  dollars  made  if  men  are  better  cared  for. 
Grant  it,  yet  we  must  confess  that  such  "wel- 
fare work"  has  its  part  in  the  evolution  of  an 
industrial  democracy.  It  is  at  least  a  glimpse 
of  the  day  when  all  men  will  live  and  labor  in 
a  clean,  healthy  and  beautiful  environment. 

The  following  notable  examples  of  welfare 
work  may  reveal  somewhat  of  the  plans  of  cer- 
tain employers  in  their  efforts  to  solve  indus- 
trial problems.  In  a  thorough  investigation  of 
this  kind  of  work,  Mr.  Budgett  Meakin*  has 
gathered  many  facts  regarding  the  efforts 
which  have  been  made  to  lift  up  both  socially 
and  morally,  the  employees  in  factory  and 
store.  In  speaking  of  the  Social  Secretary,  he 
says  that  no  firm  once  employing  such  a  helper 
would  ever  dispense  with  the  service  of  this 
assistant,  for  through  such  work  "harmony  has 
come  to  business,  and  friction  and  discord  and 
discontent  among  employees  have  ceased ;  they 
see  the  change  and  feel  it  and  the  result  of  the 
system  tinged  with  kindness  and  considera- 
tion for  others  with  an  atmosphere  of  good 
thoughts,  has  brought  not  only  increased 
trade,  but  it  makes  it  real  pleasant  to  shop  in 
these  stores."  The  best  of  our  great  modern 


*Model  Factories  and  Villages. 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  191 

business  establishments  are  seeking  the  com- 
fort and  convenience  of  their  patrons. 

A  large  department  store  now  building  in 
Los  Angeles  has  plans  for  gorgeous  parlors, 
retiring  rooms,  reading  and  writing  rooms;  a 
nursery;  an  emergency  hospital  with  physi- 
cians and  trained  nurses ;  escalators  or  moving 
stairways ;  a  great  entertainment  hall ;  and  be- 
sides a  roof  garden  for  the  public.  Some 
stores  are  furnishing  meals  at  cost  to  their 
help;  they  are  also  giving  sick  benefits,  and 
are  maintaining  schools  for  the  cash  boys. 
The  custom  of  allowing  pay  during  the  sum- 
mer vacations  is  also  extending. 

No  modern  industrial  movement  means 
more  for  the  welfare  of  the  working  people 
than  the  transfer  of  manufacturing  plants 
from  the  crowded  city  to  the  country,  where 
with'  better  housing  conditions,  better  sanita- 
tion, fresh  air,  greater  freedom  from  tempta- 
tion, and  with  flowers  and  parks  and  bright 
work  rooms,  life  seems  worth  the  living. 
Chief  among  the  factories  which  have  set  this 
noble  example  may  be  noted  the  Cadburys  of 
England,  who  left  Birmingham  for  the  rural 
Bournville,  five  miles  out.  Their  rivals,  the 
firm  of  Rowntrees  of  York,  followed  their  ex- 
ample by  moving  to  a  seventy-acre  tract,  build- 
ing as  did  the  Cadburys  a  model  factory  and 
model  village.  The  Levers  of  Port  Sunlight; 
the  Clarks  of  Street,  near  Glastonbury; 
Messrs.  drivers  of  Histon,  near  Cambridge; 


192  THE  BETTER  CITY 

Mr.  Graves  of  Sheffield,  have  all  built  factories 
in  the  open,  where  they  may  have  plenty  of 
light  and  air  and  flowers.  Both  in  this  coun 
try  and  in  England  some  of  the  great  printing 
houses  have  moved  their  plants  to  the  country, 
and  have  greatly  benefited  their  workmen. 
"From  an  aesthetic  point  of  view,  the  advan- 
tages of  such  a  removal  are  manifest.  And  we 
have  yet  to  realize  as  a  nation  what  an  in- 
fluence lovely  or  unlovely  surroundings  have 
on  our  lives  and  our  products." 

In  America  this  movement  is  well  under 
way.  The  Waltham  Watch  Works  near  Bos- 
ton, and  the  Crane  Paper  Mills  near  Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts,  are  both  situated  on  a  river 
bank  overlooking  rural  scenes,  park-like  in  ef- 
fect ;  the  Natural  Food  Company  have  a  pal- 
ace-like factory  above  Niagara  Falls,  sur- 
rounded by  park  gardens,  and  a  playground 
for  the  children;  even  in  the  city  many  fac- 
tories are  giving  attention  to  cleanliness  and 
beauty,  by  planting  vines,  painting  work  rooms 
in  bright,  cheery  colors,  and  abating  the  smoke 
nuisance.  The  National  Cash  Register  Com- 
pany of  Dayton,  Ohio,  has  been  able  to  dis- 
pose entirely  of  the  smoke  from  its  foundry. 

The  new  profession  of  factory  architect  has 
sprung  up,  involving  a  careful  study  of  all 
modern  industrial  problems.  The  Western 
Electrical  Instrument  Company  is  said  to  have 
employed  two  such  experts,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  visit  factories  in  all  parts  of  the  United 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  193 

States,  studying  construction  and  machinery; 
and  still  a  third  was  engaged  to  travel  for  a 
year,  studying  welfare  work  of  other  com- 
panies. 

The  preservation  of  life  and  limb  has  never 
received  the  attention  it  deserves,  but  public 
sentiment  is  now  demanding  the  introduction 
of  safety  devices  in  all  manufactures.  Attention 
is  being  drawn  to  this  subject  through  the 
establishment  of  museums  for  the  display  of 
safety  devices  and  appliances  which  have  been 
found  serviceable.  Notable  progress  in  this 
direction  has  been  made  in  France  and  Ger- 
many. An  Exposition  of  Safety  Devices  and 
Industrial  Hygiene,  which  was  held  in  New 
York  in  February,  and  the  Industrial  Exposi- 
tion in  Chicago  in  March,  undoubtedly  brought 
about  good  results  in  the  prevention  of  in- 
dustrial accidents. 

That  ugliness,  dirt  and  bad  odors  are  not 
necessary  concommitants  of  factory  life  has 
been  proved  by  the  construction  and  manage- 
ment of  modern  buildings  where  cleanliness  is 
maintained,  and  where  all  smoke  and  noxious 
fumes  are  drawn  off  by  exhaust  fans.  Many 
employers  are  furnishing  seats  for  their  em- 
ployees wherever  possible  and  are  giving  at- 
tention to  the  elimination  of  nerve-racking 
noises.  Others  are  furnishing  meals  to  their 
workers  at  cost,  sometimes  even  below  cost, 
and  in  many  instances  well-equipped  dining 
rooms  are  being  built  as  an  essential  part  of 


194  THE  BETTER  CITY 

the  plant.  Recreation  is  now  considered  nec- 
essary in  the  best  of  factories.  Relaxation 
from  work  at  short  intervals,  with  physical 
culture  exercises,  a  run  out  of  doors,  or  a  drill 
in  the  gymnasium  afford  a  change  which  con- 
serves both  health  and  energy.  Baths,  singing 
and  dancing  classes,  libraries  and  club  rooms 
add  much  to  the  enjoyment  of  life. 

Pensions  and  model  cottages,  profit  sharing 
and  copartnership,  are  more  than  palliative 
measures ;  they  reveal  the  dawning  of  the  con- 
viction that  "man  owes  more  to  man  than 
wages  or  food  or  clothing  or  shelter."  While 
the  familiar  phrase  "it  pays"  seems  to  furnish 
the  only  incentive  yet  worked  out  in  actual 
life,  it  has  its  educational  value  both  for  mas- 
ter and  man.  As  one  writer  puts  it:  "It  pays 
to  treat  factory  people  like  human  beings,  to 
insure  them  healthful  and  beautiful  surround- 
ings, and  to  appeal  to  them  as  possessed  of  a 
mind  and  not  simply  of  bodies.  When  this 
potent  fact  has  been  grasped  by  more  em- 
ployers, our  factory  towns  will  not  be  the  re- 
pellant  places  that  many  of  them  are  now,  and 
our  factory  people  will  not  be  spoken  of  merely 
as  'hands'  and  very  dirty  ones  at  that." 

One  of  the  captains  of  industry  who  has  ad- 
vanced the  farthest  in  social  experiments  is 
Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson.  So  wonderfully  has  he  suc- 
ceeded in  introducing  the  cooperative  prin- 
ciple at  Leclaire,  Illinois,  that  an  extended  no- 
tice of  his  experiment  may  be  helpful  to  others. 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  195 

In  1890  Village  Leclaire  was  started.  It  was 
situated  eighteen  miles  north  of  St.  Louis  on 
the  highland  of  Illinois,  adjoining  Edwards- 
ville.  The  purpose  for  which  it  was  founded 
was  to  provide  modern  facilities  for  manufac- 
turing, and  better  conditions  of  living.  One 
hundred  and  twenty-five  acres  of  rich,  gently 
undulating  land  were  secured,  abutting  on  the 
station  of  the  Toledo,  St.  Louis  &  Western 
Railroad.  About  ten  acres  of  this  were  re- 
served for  factory  and  public  purposes,  the 
remainder  being  laid  out,  park  fashion,  for 
residence  use. 

Mr.  Nelson  writes:  "We  set  out  to  make 
economical  healthy  work  shops,  and  to  provide 
facilities  for  recreation  and  education  other 
than  that  supplied  by  the  public  schools,  to 
make  homes  for  the  employees  with  modern 
conveniences,  and  to  make  the  place  attract- 
ive in  appearance.  We  counted  on  doing  this 
by  providing  the  proper  facilities,  giving  the 
opportunity  and  letting  the  people  do  the  rest. 
We  started  with  the  idea  of  complete  individ- 
ual freedom,  no  arbitrary  authority,  and  have 
continued  this  policy  to  the  present  time.  We 
named  it  Leclaire  in  recognition  of  the  eminent 
services  of  the  Parisian  of  that  name,  who 
first  introduced  profit  sharing  with  employees. 

"Starting  in  a  wheat  field  without  any  other 
improvements  than  rail  fences,  and  at  the  end 
of  sixteen  years  of  good  and  bad  times  this  is 
how  Leclaire  now  stands:  Every  employee 


196  THE  BETTER  CITY 

who  wishes  it  has  or  may  have  a  house  in 
Leclaire,  buying  it  at  the  cost  of  construction 
by  our  own  building  force,  plus  five  per  cent 
for  general  management,  paying  for  it  and  the 
lot  in  monthly  installments  varying  from  $10 
to  $25  per  month.  The  amount  of  monthly 
payment  is  arranged  according  to  what  a  man 
can  afford.  If  he  is  a  foreman  or  a  mechanic 
with  a  large  salary  and  a  small  family,  he  pays 
larger  instalments  than  the  laboring  man  at  a 
$1.75  per  day  and  with  a  large  family.  This,  as 
well  as  the  size  and  style  of  the  house  and 
location,  is  amicably  arranged  in  advance.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  no  employee  has  ever  had 
any  money  saved  up  to  make  an  advance  pay- 
ment, neither  has  any  employee  ever  failed  to 
make  a  payment  so  as  to  cause  any  trouble 
whatever,  and  there  has  never  been  a  fore- 
closure. A  large  number  of  homes  have  long 
since  been  paid  for. 

"It  has  never  been  our  design  to  confine  it 
to  our  employees;  others  are  equally  welcome 
to  buy  lots  and  build  for  themselves.  The 
deeds  are  made  in  fee  simple,  with  two  pro- 
tective clauses — a  front  building  line  of  thirty 
feet  and  restricting  the  use  to  residence,  edu- 
cation or  benevolent  purposes.  That  settles 
the  whole  question  of  saloon,  livery  stable  or 
other  undesirable  business  neighbors. 

"The  price  of  lots  goes  to  pay  for  public  im- 
provements. The  chief  streets  are  winding 
and  all  paved  with  cinders  and  bordered  by 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  197 

trees,  grass  and  sidewalks.  The  water  and 
electric  light  in  all  the  houses  are  supplied  by 
the  company,  the  price  of  water  being  $5  a 
year  for  unlimited  use,  and  twenty-five  cents  a 
month  for  electric  lights.  If  for  any  reason 
a  man  ceases  to  live  in  Leclaire,  he  is  free  to 
sell  it  to  anyone  else,  or  he  may  sell  it  to  the 
company  at  the  cost  and  pay  rent  for  the  time 
he  has  occupied  it.  The  lots  are  from  fifty  to 
one  hundred  feet  front,  most  of  the  early 
houses  being  built  on  one  hundred  feet,  but  the 
later  ones  mostly  seventy-five  feet.  Every 
spring  a  wholesale  order  for  fruit  trees,  shrub- 
bery, plants  and  seeds  is  made  up  of  the  in- 
dividual wants  of  the  residents.  Nearly  all  the 
homes  are  well  stocked  with  shrubbery,  fruit 
trees,  flowers  and  gardens  in  the  rear. 

"There  is  a  bowling  alley,  billiard  room, 
baseball  ground,  an  artificial  lake  of  seven 
acres  for  boating  and  fishing  in  the  summer 
and  skating  in  winter.  There  is  a  hall  for 
dancing,  lectures,  singing  and  family  parties. 
There  is  no  municipal  organization,  no  mayor, 
police  or  boss.  There  has  never  been  any 
violence  or  any  'drunk'  or  any  use  for  an  of- 
ficer. The  streets  are  lighted  and  sprinkled 
and  kept  in  good  order.  The  public  services 
are  attended  to  by  the  company  in  the  same 
manner  as  its  other  business,  theoretically  act- 
ing as  the  representative  of  the  residents,  do- 
ing only  those  things  which  everybody  wants 
done.  The  residents  may  at  any  time  organ- 


198  THE  BETTER  CITY 

ize  a  municipality  and  control  their  own  af- 
fairs. The  company  is  well  adapted  to  doing 
the  work  in  the  cheapest  and  best  manner,  and 
so  long  as  it  performs  this  duty  well,  there  will 
be  no  occasion  for  change.  There  never  has 
been  even  a  suggestion  of  a  change. 

"By  the  average  of  the  United  States,  Le- 
claire  should  have  had  180  arrests  during  its 
lifetime.  It  has  had  none.  It  should  have 
had  a  death  rate  of  seventeen  in  a  thousand; 
it  has  had  about  four.  All  of  its  children  have 
passed  through  the  kindergarten  which  has 
been  maintained  from  the  beginning." 

Within  a  few  years  in  accordance  with  this 
plan,  to  the  employees  and  customers  will 
come  by  the  simple  method  of  profit  sharing, 
the  full  ownership  of  this  great  business.  The 
complete  success  of  this  scheme  ought  to  in- 
spire many  more  capitalists  to  think  of  the 
other  fellow,  as  well  as  of  themselves.  Mr. 
Nelson  points  out  that  the  very  living  to- 
gether as  men  produces  results  not  otherwise 
obtainable.  He  says :  "Our  people  are  of  all 
nationalities,  drawn  mainly  from  the  cities, 
used  to  the  city  worker's  manner  of  living. 
They  have  improved  by  no  influence  but  them- 
selves and  their  neighbors  and  the  public  fa- 
cilities, such  as  every  city  and  town  aims  and 
hopes  to  have  for  its  well-to-do.  There  are 
no  rules  and  regulations ;  no  law  except  that 
of  the  state  and  county;  no  one  is  ever  asked 
to  cut  his  grass  or  keep  in  his  chickens.  Being 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  199 

wholly  free,  he  and  his  family  choose  to  stand 
as  well  as  any  of  his  neighbors,  and  fashions 
his  home  and  his  ways  accordingly/' 

Every  success  of  that  like  Mr.  Nelson's  is 
illuminating  and  inspiring,  for  it  shows  us  the 
possibility  of  making  men  out  of  what  seems 
common  stuff.  Says  Ruskin :  "We  have 
studied  and  much  perfected  of  late  the  great 
civilized  invention  of  the  great  division  of  la- 
bor, only  we  have  given  it  a  false  name.  It  is 
not,  truly  speaking,  the  labor  that  is  divided, 
but  the  men — divided  into  mere  segments  of 
men — broken  into  small  fragments  and  crumbs 
of  life,  so  that  all  the  little  piece  of  intelligence 
that  is  left  is  not  enough  to  make  a  pin  or  a 
nail,  but  exhausts  itself  in  making  the  point 
of  the  pin  or  the  head  of  the  nail.  Now  it  is 
a  good  and  desirable  thing,  truly  to  make  many 
pins  in  a  day;  but  if  we  could  only  see  with 
what  crystal  sands  their  points  were  polished 
— sand  of  a  human  soul,  much  to  be  magnified 
before  it  can  be  discerned  for  what  it  is — we 
should  think  there  might  be  some  loss  in  it 
also.  And  the  great  cry  that  rises  from  our 
manufacturing  cities,  louder  than  their  fur- 
nace blast,  is  all  in  very  deed  for  this:  That 
we  manufacture  everything  there  except  men ; 
we  blanch  cotton  and  strengthen  steel,  and  re- 
fine sugar,  and  shape  pottery;  but  to  brighten 
and  strengthen,  to  refine  or  to  form  a  single 
living  spirit,  never  enters  into  our  estimate  of 
advantages." 


200  THE  BETTER  CITY 

In  his  "Christianity  and  the  Social  Prob- 
lems," Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  discusses  the  stand- 
ard of  value,  concluding  that  the  social  and 
industrial  system  is  to  be  measured  not  by  the 
wealth  it  produces,  but  by  the  men  it  pro- 
duces; not  by  the  abundance  of  material 
things,  but  by  the  kind  of  men  developed  in 
the  process.  Men,  not  things,  is  the  standard 
of  value.  An  industrial  system  must  produce 
good  men  or  it  fails.  The  writer  by  an  appeal 
to  facts,  shows  that  our  present  industrial 
system  is  not  giving  steady  and  permanent 
employment  to  all  willing  laborers;  that  the 
system  fails  to  give  to  all  those  employed  un- 
der it  wages  adequate  for  a  livelihood.  If  by 
the  word  "livelihood"  is  meant  that  which 
nourishes  the  mind  and  the  spirit  as  well  as 
the  body,  then  any  system  that  is  to  produce 
the  best  results  must  be  itself  educational  and 
allow  adequate  leisure  for  the  working  out  of 
educational  processes.  An  essential  condition 
of  human  well-being  is  a  pure,  good  home ;  but 
to  maintain  a  home  under  the  present  system 
of  housing  of  the  industrial  population  is  well 
nigh  impossible. 

The  growth  of  the  altruistic  spirit  is  rapidly 
bringing  all  men  to  believe  in  the  statement  of 
Tolstoi  that  "men  think  there  are  at  times  cir- 
cumstances when  one  may  deal  with  human 
beings  without  love,  and  there  are  no  such 
circumstances.  One  may  deal  with  things 
without  love ;  one  may  cut  down  trees,  make 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  201 

bricks,  hammer  iron  without  love,  but  you 
cannot  deal  with  men  without  love."  Grant 
this  fact,  and  what  employer  would  be  willing 
to  employ  child  labor;  conduct  a  sweat  shop; 
give  men  less  than  a  living  wage;  cause  them 
to  work  in  unsanitary  factories,  or  have  a  part 
in  any  of  the  multitude  of  evils  now  common 
in  industrialism?  A  man  is  more  than  a  ma- 
chine, and  because  of  that,  a  factory  can  be 
made  to  produce  spiritual  as  well  as  material 
products.  Not  alone  the  idealist,  but  many  a 
man  of  business  who  is  a  thinking  man,  be- 
lieves in  the  coming  of  the  cooperative  com- 
monwealth, in  which  every  man  shall  have 
equality  of  opportunity.  Edwin  Markham  ex- 
presses the  thought  of  many  students  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Nazarene,  when  he  says : 
"Jesus  set  himself  to  organize  a  social  order 
that  should  shift  the  center  of  social  gravity 
from  common  greed  to  common  God ;  from  pri- 
vate weal  to  common  weal.  The  state  was  to 
be  made  the  organ  of  love.  Sublime  concep- 
tion !  The  purpose  to  unite  the  sacred  with 
the  secular,  to  give  the  spirit  a  working  body 
in  the  world." 

A  modern  captain  of  industry  imbued  with 
these  high  ideals,  believes  that  men  should 
use  their  abilities  as  well  as  properties  for  the 
good  of  all.  A  man  owes  his  abilities  to  the 
public  because  he  is  a  part  of  the  whole,  and 
would  be  nothing  without  the  whole.  That  is 
implied  in  all  talk  about  public  spirit,  public 


JOJ  THE  BETTER  CITY 

duty,  public  service,  not  to  mention  fellowship, 

btothci  hootl.   .iml    ichjMou.      While    thctc   aio   .\ 

growing  number  of  employers  interested  in 
welfare  work,  and  in  the  solution  of  industrial 
problems,  it  yet  remains  a  fact  that  the  system 

VMVS  on  .is  ot   vote      iMiiulmi;  out   dollars  with 
out    tci;aid   to  (\\c  hum. in   element        It    existing 

evils  are  not  remedied  by  those  possessing 
wealth,  education  and  culture,  there  should  be 

no  compl.mil   it  the  \\oikuu;  class,  so  adversely 

affected  by  these  conditions,  should  arise  in 
their  might  and  demand  that  to  which  they  are 
entitled  as  men.  The  working  men  of  the 
world  have  been  compelled  to  unite.  Not  uu 

derstandinv:  the  LMC.U  piinciples  underlying  an 
industrial  dcmoci  acy.  the  threat  mass  have 

struck  and  been  locked  out.  They  have  suf- 
fered together  in  a  sacrificial  spirit  riu-\ 
have  often  fought  over  minor  matters,  and 
have  committed  crimes  in  the  name  of  labor; 

\ct    it   cauuot    bo  ilcuioil   that   nearly   all  of  the 

improvement  of  the  conditions  under  which 

men    work    has   come   about    through    the   \\\£\\ 

ideals  of  united  labor.    Shorter  hours  of  labor, 

inciease  ot   \vai;os.  employer's  liability,  the  ab- 

olition  of  child  labor,  the  regulation  of  women's 
work,  have  been  fought  for  and  partial  victo- 

,       l'..-,\e    been    obtained.      Not    alone    are   the 
unions  working  for  better  conditions,  but   m 

increasing  numbers  the  laboiini:  men  are  work- 
ing in  connection  with  the  Socialist  party  for 
the  coopetatne  comnuMjwcalth,  some  as  ideal 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  203 

ists  and  some  as  opportunists,  yet  all  believ- 
ing that  the  present  competitive  system  is 
doomed,  and  that  a  cooperative  commonwealth 
is  destined  to  take  its  place. 

That  employer  and  employed  are  interested 
in  questions  of  industrial  life  is  evident,  but 
in  these  questions  the  general  puhlie.  the  great 
third  party,  is  also  vitally  concerned.  It  is 
the  puhlie  that  pays  the  price,  and  from  its 
ranks  come  the  reformers  who  devote  them- 
selves \\ith  religious  zeal  to  the  solution  of 
these  industrial  problems.  The  work  of  en- 
lighten men t  takes  place  through  academic  dis- 
eussions,  mag.i.-ine  articles,  investigations  of 
trusts  and  monopolies,  exhibitions  in  cities, 
which  show  actual  conditions  of  factory  life, 
thus  educating  public  opinion  and  in  many 
other  ways  furthering  the  cause  of  labor. 

The  public  also  pays  the  social  price.  Partx 
of  the  price  may  consist  in  industrial  acci- 
dents. Families  and  individuals  are  thus 
thrown  back  upon  the  public  and  fill  the  hos- 
pitals, asylums  and  ahushonses;  it  is  the  public 
and  not  the  employer  who  pays  the  bill.  The 
child  slave,  broken  in  spirit,  becomes  a  pauper, 
and  the  public  pays  the  social  price. 

That  all  employers  are  not  opposed  to  trade 
unions  is  evident  from  the  words  of  the  gregt 
English  manufacturer,  George  Cadbury.     He\ 
says:    "My  reasons  for  supporting  trades  un- 
ions are  largely  ethical.     Without   such  bodies   / 
wages  are  brought  down  to  the  lowest  point;/ 


/204  THE  BETTER  CITY 

I     take  for  example  the  seamstresses  of  London, 
/      whose  wages  are  only  just  sufficient  to  keep 
soul  and  body  together.     Only  trades  unions 
\      can    secure    collective    bargaining.      Without 
\     them  the  individual  worker  must  be  at  a  great 
disadvantage  compared  to  the  employer.  They 
tend  to  high  wages  and  thus  to  secure  a  more 
equal  division  of  wealth  of  a  country,  which 
can  only  be  termed  truly  prosperous  when  the 
bulk  of  its  inhabitants  are  in  comfort.     Eng- 
land with  all  its  colonies  and  wealth  cannot  be 
said  to  be  a  prosperous  country  while  millions 
of  its  people  are  on  the  verge  of  starvation 
and  living  in  unhealthy  slums."* 

No  fair  judgment  can  be  passed  on  the  ac- 
tion of  united  labor  without  considering  care- 
fully the  reasons  compelling  them  to  action. 
Why  is  there  so  much  unrest  and  discontent? 
Is  it  the  result  of  a  few  paid  agitators,  or  does 
it  spring  from  a  deeper  cause?  Consider  some 
of  the  abuses  against  which  labor  presents  a 
solid  front.  In  the  first  place,  let  attention  be 
paid  to  the  conditions  under  which  women 
work.  Hard  labor  for  women  is  not  in  accord 
with  twentieth  century  ideals;  yet  it  is  re- 
ported that  there  are  130,000  women  who  are 
working  in  3,900  factories  in  New  York  City, 
and  that  large  numbers  of  them  stand  all  day 
at  their  work;  many  operate  dangerous  ma- 
chines ;  many  work  in  air  laden  with  steam  and 


*British  Trade  Review,  January,  1898. 


JAPANKSE,    RUSSIAN   AND    CHINESE    CHILDREN 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  205 

dusty  fiber;  some  work  in  dark,  ill-ventilated 
rooms,  while  all  work  under  a  high  pressure  of 
speed.  Then  there  is  the  effort  made  by  united 
labor  to  suppress  child  labor,  which  in  this 
country  is  beginning  of  late  to  receive  some 
measure  of  the  attention  which  it  deserves. 
Think  of  it!  Over  1,700,000  children  in  the 
United  States,  under  the  age  of  sixteen,  who 
are  in  the  ranks  of  the  toilers.*  Does  our 
country  realize  the  import  of  these  figures? 
But  figures  do  not  tell  the  story  of  the  child 
taken  in  tender  years  from  the  influence  of  the 
home;  of  the  little  form  working  long  hours 
under  an  intense  strain  which  only  a  mature 
body  can  stand;  of  the  physical,  the  mental 
and  the  moral  degeneration  following  the  lack 
of  proper  play  and  education  and  uplifting  in- 
fluences necessary  to  the  normal  development 
of  youth.  They  do  not  tell  of  tired  bodies  pre- 
maturely aged;  of  accidents  so  prevalent  that 
leave  them  crippled  and  maimed  for  life.  They 
do  not  tell  of  the  army  of  paupers,  vagrants 
and  criminals  which  society  will  have  to  sup- 
port when  the  energy  of  the  workers  shall 
have  been  drained,  or  they  have  turned  in  dis- 
gust from  a  system  that  grinds  out  life  and 
makes  them  at  best  mere  soulless,  automatic 
contrivances;  nor  do  they  tell  of  the  dire  ef- 
fects upon  the  next  generation,  upon  the  off- 
spring physically  degenerate.  The  awful  con- 


*Census,  1,752,000. 
14 


206  THE  BETTER  CITY 

summation  of  such  a  system  is  seen  in  England 
where  for  so  long  a  time  child  labor  was  prac- 
ticed, and  where  today  the  problem  of  the  un- 
employed is  pressing  so  heavily.  Dr.  Samuel  M. 
Lindsay,  Secretary  of  the  National  Child  La- 
bor Committee,  who  has  made  a  thorough 
study  of  conditions  in  England,  declares  that 
to  a  large  extent  the  unemployed  are  not  those 
who  will  not  work,  but  those  who  are  unable 
to  meet  the  demands  of  modern  manufacturing 
life ;  not  merely  out  of  work,  but  not  able  to 
do  the  work  required.  "In  brief,  they  are  in- 
effectives."  Already  in  the  South  a  "factory" 
type  is  being  developed,  distinguishable  by  a 
sallowness  of  complexion  and  physical  under 
development. 

Dr.  Lindsay  in  his  article  entitled,  "Child 
Labor  a  National  Problem,"  declares  that, 
"Our  standards  of  living,  our  tests  of  indus- 
trial efficiency,  as  well  as  our  educational  op- 
portunities, have  increased  at  a  rapid  rate  in 
the  last  few  years.  So  much  greater  is  the 
wrong  therefore  that  is  done  to  the  children 
who  are  deprived  of  even  the  ordinary  oppor- 
tunities to  prepare  for  the  greater  demands  of 
the  future  when  they  reach  the  years  of  adult 
life.  Child  labor  in  America  means  that  as  a 
nation  we  are  deliberately  breeding  social  in- 
equality and  striking  at  the  roots  of  democracy. 
Ostrich  fashion  we  only  bury  our  heads  in  the 
sands  of  temporary  excuses — that  of  industrial 
necessity,  or  the  poverty  of  the  parents,  or  the 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  207 

absurd  fallacy  that  we  are  giving  an  industrial 
education  to  the  child  worker — when  we  re- 
fuse to  look  squarely  in  the  face  of  the  in- 
evitable consequences  of  our  madness  and  our 
racial  folly." 

Work  has  its  part  in  the  child's  education, 
but  the  conviction  is  growing  throughout  the 
country  today,  that  with  the  advent  of  ma- 
chinery and  modern  industrial  methods,  child 
labor,  not  only  is  failing  to  educate,  but  is 
tending  to  degeneration.  Against  this  evil  of 
child  labor  are  arrayed  the  forces  of  the  la- 
bor unions,  woman's  clubs,  social  settlements, 
and  many  other  organizations  of  social  work- 
ers. 

It  is  almost  incredible  how  awful  is  the 
waste  occasioned  by  industrial  accidents.  Dr. 
Josiah  Strong  contends  that  our  peace  voca- 
tions cost  more  lives  every  two  days  than  we 
lost  in  battle  during  the  war  with  Spain.  The 
Pennsylvania  coal  fields  furnish  annually  "an 
industrial  Bull  Run."  And  this  leader  in  social 
service  reminds  us  that  men  are  worth  more 
than  things.  "Needless  slaughter  is  criminal 
slaughter.  Industrial  homicide  is  being  com- 
mitted every  hour  of  the  day,  and  the  employer 
who  does  not  provide  every  practical  means 
for  safeguarding  life  and  limb  is  particeps 
criminis.  Nor  is  the  indifferent  public  inno- 
cent. We  need  to  be  more  deeply  impressed 
with  the  value  and  sanctity  of  human  life.  A 
man  is  worth  more  than  the  things  which  he 


208  THE  BETTER  CITY 

makes,  or  mines,  or  transports.  To  sacrifice 
life  to  things,  whose  only  use  is  to  minister 
to  life,  is  perversion.  It  is  the  prostitution  of 
the  higher  to  the  lower. 

"Suffering  and  death,  bereavement  and  want 
are  the  terrible  prices  paid  by  others  that  we 
may  enjoy  the  necessaries,  comforts  and  luxu- 
ries of  modern  civilization.  The  market  price 
— the  price  which  we  pay — is  only  a  part  of  the 
actual  cost.  To  eyes  that  can  see,  the  cosl 
mark  is  written  in  blood — 'a  damned  spot'  that 
will  not  'out'  so  long  as  dividends  are  more 
precious  than  human  lives."* 

It  is  a  fact  of  history  that  for  years  the  rep- 
resentatives of  labor  in  this  country  were  al- 
most alone  in  their  heroic  struggle  to  bring 
about  the  enactment  of  laws  prohibiting  or 
regulating  child  labor,  improving  conditions 
and  shortening  the  hours  of  women's  work, 
enforcing  the  employer's  liability  acts,  and  in 
bringing  about  the  adoption  of  life-saving  de- 
vices in  factories  and  on  railways  and  where- 
ever  labor  and  life  were  endangered  by  ma- 
chinery. One  may  find  fault  with  the  methods 
used  in  labor's  struggle,  yet  it  must  be  recog- 
nized that  the  higher  ideals  of  real  religion 
and  true  education  are  impelling  these  toilers 
to  strive  and  to  strike  in  order  that  their  chil- 
dren may  live  the  larger  life. 

What  is  the  central  issue  of  the  labor  move- 


Mosiah  Strong. 


INDUSTRIAL  LIFE  209 

ment?  Ask  those  who  are  best  informed  and 
they  will  tell  you  that  "it  is  nothing  less  than 
the  concerted  movement  of  the  majority  of  the 
world's  workers  for  recognition  of  human 
rights  and  personal  values  in  the  working 
world;  the  more  or  less  organized  effort  of 
fellow  craftsmen  and  federated  forces  of  all 
trades  unions  to  attain  and  maintain  that 
standard  of  life  and  comfort  which  makes  it 
possible  for  'men  to  live  the  lives  of  men.'  The 
general  movement  thus  described  includes 
such  specific  objects  of  pursuit  as  a  living 
wage,  upon  which  depends  the  existence  of 
the  home,  with  wifehood,  motherhood  and 
childhood ;  a  fairer  share  of  leisure  and  privi- 
lege involving  limitation  of  hours  of  labor  and 
the  extension  of  the  opportunities  for  relief 
from  the  monotony  of  subdivided  toil ;  protec- 
tion of  the  life,  limb  and  the  health  of  the 
working  man,  woman  and  child ;  a  tenable  so- 
cial status  with  the  possibility  of  peace, 
progress  and  human  brotherhood." 

Los  Angeles  is  yet  to  be  a  great  manufactur- 
ing center.  Will  this  mean  industrial  war  be- 
tween classes?  Or  will  the  vision  of  Andrew 
Toynbee,  expressed  in  the  following  words, 
find  fulfillment  in  this  City  of  the  Angels :  "Let 
us  remember  even  in  these  moments  of  depres- 
sion, that  there  never  has  been  such  a  time 
when  such  union  between  the  classes  has  been 
possible  as  it  is  today,  or  soon  will  become. 
For  not  only  has  the  law  given  to  workmen 


210  THE  BETTER  CITY 

and  employer  equality  of  rights,  but  education 
bids  fair  to  give  them  equality  of  culture.  We 
are  all,  now,  workmen  as  well  as  employers,  in- 
habitants of  a  larger  social  world;  no  longer 
members  of  a  single  class,  but  fellow  citizens 
of  one  great  people;  no  longer  the  poor  re- 
cipients of  a  class  tradition,  but  heirs  of  a 
nation's  history.  Nay  more,  we  are  no  longer 
citizens  of  a  single  nation — we  are  participa- 
tors in  the  life  of  mankind,  and  joint  heirs  of 
a  world's  inheritance.  Strengthened  by  this 
wider  communion,  and  ennobled  by  this  vaster 
heritage,  shall  we  not  trample  under  foot  the 
passions  that  divide,  and  pass  through  the  por- 
tals of  a  new  age  to  inaugurate  a  new  life?" 


CHAPTER  XI. 
ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED 

Organized  religion  is  the  power  making  for 
righteousness  in  every  community.  It  is  pow- 
erful because  religion  stands  for  that  which  is 
highest  and  noblest  in  the  development  of  man, 
and  when  organized,  represents  a  mighty  force 
for  moral  uplift.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  brought 
with  them  the  Church  and  the  School,  and 
these  were  the  first  institutions  planted  in 
every  community  as  the  frontier  was  pushed 
onward  toward  the  Western  sea.  Religious 
zeal  sent  men  and  women  to  the  cannibal  is- 
lands, where  their  labors  of  love  produced  re- 
sults almost  miraculous.  They  became  the 
teachers  in  the  Orient,  and  the  awakened  na- 
tions now  thank  them  for  their  great  aid  in 
the  time  of  transition. 

While  it  needs  no  argument  to  prove  that 
much  has  been  done  by  organized  religion  for 
the  betterment  of  the  world,  and  the  ushering 
in  of  an  ideal  society,  the  world  calls  for  better 
results  in  the  future  than  in  the  past.  It  is  the 
purpose  of  this  chapter  to  show  that  the  return 
to  the  original  social  ideals  of  Christianity  is 
what  is  needed  in  the  religious  life  of  today. 

Jesus  the  Nazarene  was  a  spiritual  teacher, 
and  not  the  founder  of  an  organization.  He 


212  THE  BETTER  CITY 

was  a  seer,  with  the  vision  of  a  new,  God- 
permeated  society,  freed  from  the  animalism 
and  corruption  into  which  man  had  sunk;  a 
society  which  had  been  dimly  foreseen  by  the 
prophets,  who  told  of  a  day  to  come  when 
"men  helped  everyone  his  neighbor,  and  every- 
one said  to  his  neighbor,  Be  of  good  courage." 
He  was  not  an  iconoclast.  He  came  not  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfil.  He  built  no  temple,  but 
lived  the  life  of  simple  service.  He  taught  that 
the  spirit  was  worth  more  than  the  letter;  lov- 
ing ministration  worth  more  than  burnt  offer- 
ing and  bloody  sacrifice. 

The  disciples  of  Christ  in  their  effort  to 
carry  out  his  teachings  and  embody  his  spirit, 
gathered  together  first  as  friends  of  a  mutual 
friend,  to  talk  of  his  wonderful  words  and  life, 
and  to  consult  as  to  the  best  way  of  reaching 
others  with  the  truth  which  they  had  received. 
They  were  simply  seeking  to  live  the  life  and 
follow  the  teachings  of  him  whose  disciples 
they  were.  They  had  no  thoughts  of  a  great 
organization,  but  lived  out  their  lives  naturally 
in  the  midst  of  heathenism,  licentious  living, 
and  corrupt  government.  Thus  they  were 
forced  to  come  together  for  mutual  edification. 
Their  first  duties  were  largely  social.  Loss  of 
employment  on  account  of  religion  was  of  com- 
mon occurrence,  so  that  the  little  band  of  be- 
lievers were  forced  to  have  all  things  in  com- 
mon. In  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  their 
teacher,  they  recognized  no  caste  distinctions 


REPRESENTING    ORGANIZED    RELIGION 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     213 

or  difference  on  account  of  position  or  posses- 
sions. Like  their  teacher,  they  healed  the  sick 
and  cared  for  the  needy.  Because  their  collect- 
ive life  was  the  embodiment  of  the  spirit 
rather  than  of  a  legal  institution,  it  touched 
man  in  all  of  his  relations,  and  was  truly  so- 
cial in  its  influence. 

Three  great  movements  characterize  the  out- 
going of  religion,  "Godward,"  "together"  and 
"manward."  The  first  may  be  individual,  as 
when  the  human  heart  calls  out  for  that  which 
is  not  of  self,  and  recognizes  the  imminent  God 
as  the  deepest  fact  of  the  universe.  At  other 
times  it  is  social,  as  when  by  sudden  impulse, 
large  numbers  of  men  cry  out  for  the  living 
God  and  the  transforming  power  enters  their 
lives.  Then  with  one  accord  they  come  to- 
gether as  a  company  of  believers  of  like  mind 
and  heart.  If  religion  stops  here,  it  will  be- 
come fixed  in  its  organization  and  selfish  in  its 
life.  Its  only  salvation  is  in  its  next  step,  out- 
ward and  manward.  The  mountain-top  in- 
spiration is  useless,  unless  the  power  is  used 
for  healing  in  the  actual  touch  of  life.  "To- 
gether" is  a  word  full  of  great  social  signifi- 
cance. It  means  organization  through  the  "fel- 
lowship of  ministering,"  as  in  the  early  Church. 
It  also  means  the  gentle  art  of  living  together 
in  the  social  relationships  spiritualized  and 
made  a  power  for  good. 

The  early  church  was  simple  in  its  life,  and 
earnest  in  its  purpose  to  bring  the  world  into 


214  THE  BETTER  CITY 

that  ideal  society  called  the  Kingdom  of  God — 
the  constant  theme  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
The  Church  was  the  instrument  by  which  this 
wider  society  was  to  be  established.  It  was 
the  means  of  which  that  was  the  end ;  not  an 
end  in  itself.  Organized  religion,  as  we  know, 
was  of  slow  growth.  The  Church  which  was 
formed  to  make  it  easier  to  minister  unto  men, 
at  last  came  to  be  so  strong  that  it  forced  men 
to  minister  unto  it.  Putting  itself  on  the  de- 
fensive, it  sought  to  guard  its  riches,  material 
and  intellectual,  from  the  attack  of  the  sinner 
and  the  scientist. 

The  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  drifted  far 
away  from  the  simple  life  of  Jesus.  With 
great  riches  and  ecclesiastical  authority,  it  had 
little  in  common  with  the  humble  Nazarene, 
who  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  The  re- 
formed Church  lived  a  simple  life,  but  in  plac- 
ing its  emphasis  on  individualism,  it  sought 
to  save  the  individual  rather  than  to  trans- 
form the  social  life ;  to  save  a  soul  for  eternal 
life,  rather  than  to  labor  for  the  preservation 
and  enrichment  of  the  life  that  now  is.  This 
led  to  a  dual  living — a  false  distinction  between 
the  secular  and  religious,  and  the  anomaly  of 
saying  prayers  on  Sunday  and  using  false 
weights  on  Monday.  With  pride  for  certain 
interior  moral  qualities,  Christian  men  left  un- 
done their  civic,  social  and  industrial  duties. 
Tolstoi  was  not  far  wrong  when  he  said  that 
the  Church,  while  it  believes  itself  to  be  the 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     215 

possessor  of  a  future  life  of  eternal  beatitude, 
fails  too  often  to  beautify  with  worthy  deeds 
this  present  life. 

Because  organized  religion  has  been  con- 
sidered largely  as  an  institution  to  be  defended 
rather  than  as  a  force  for  service,  the  united 
impulse  for  all  great  world  movements  for  so- 
cial reform  have  generally  come  from  without. 
The  Church  has  always  been  conservative. 
Witness  the  struggle  for  freedom,  for  temper- 
ance, and  for  political  reform.  The  Church 
is  still  conservative,  and  therefore  is  not  lead- 
ing in  the  great  social  movement  of  the  day. 
The  rising  power  of  the  common  man  is  being 
recognized  first  by  Settlement  and  Civic  As- 
sociation rather  than  by  Church  and  Cathe- 
dral. "Merely  to  attain  individual  morality  in 
an  age  demanding  social  morality,  is  to  pride 
one's  self  on  the  results  of  personal  effort  when 
the  times  demand  social  adjustment  is  utterly 
to  fail  to  apprehend  the  situation."* 

Referring  to  the  subjective  necessity  for  so- 
cial settlements,  Miss  Addams  says :  "It  is 
quite  impossible  for  me  to  say  in  what  propor- 
tion or  what  degree  the  subjective  necessity 
which  led  to  the  opening  of  Hull  House  com- 
bined the  three  trends :  first  the  desire  to  in- 
terpret democracy  in  social  terms;  secondly, 
the  impulse  beating  at  the  very  source  of  our 
lives  urging  us  to  aid  the  race  in  progress ;  and 


*Jane  Addams. 


216  THE  BETTER  CITY 

thirdly,  the  Christian  movement  toward  hu- 
manitarianism."  While  the  modern  social 
movements  are  the  result  of  the  teachings  of  the 
Church,  yet  at  present  the  Settlement  seems 
to  be  outstripping  organized  religion  in  the  very 
kind  of  social  service  exemplified  by  Jesus 
himself. 

The  great  movement  for  civic  righteousness 
is  largely  outside  of  organized  religion.  Gov- 
ernor Folk  writes :  "We  are  in  the  beginning 
of  the  greatest  moral  awakening  America  has 
ever  known.  The  next  four  years  will  be  dis- 
tinguished as  the  time  in  which  the  reign  of 
lawlessness  and  privilege  ends  and  the  reign 
of  equal  rights  for  all  will  become  fixed  in 
national  policies  and  the  conscience  of  man- 
kind. We  are  entering  upon  the  best  age  the 
world  has  ever  known."  It  would  almost  seem 
that  for  fear  of  antagonizing  the  money  inter- 
ests on  which  its  material  support  depends,  the 
Church  as  an  institution  does  not  lead  in  this 
movement. 

Organized  religion  is  disturbed  by  the  great 
social  unrest,  but  every  real  student  of  con- 
ditions is  convinced  that  this  is  a  part  of  the 
great  world  movement  upward — the  cry  of  the 
soul  for  light  and  power  and  opportunity.  The 
movement  needs  spiritual  leaders,  and  not  de- 
stroyers; men  who  realize  that  this  is  the 
breaking  away  from  mere  outward  authority, 
caused  by  the  application  to  social  and  indus- 
trial questions  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  in  the 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     217 

Golden  Rule  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
As  in  other  great  movements,  the  Church  is 
following  where  it  ought  to  be  leading.  There 
are  signs  that  point  to  the  fact  that  the  next 
great  awakening  in  the  Church  will  be  a  social 
awakening.  Books  on  this  subject  are  more 
popular  than  those  on  theology  or  church  his- 
tory. Many  men,  tired  of  formalism,  are  enter- 
ing into  sociNal,  humanitarian  and  reform  work. 
Emphasis  is  being  placed  on  conduct  and  life. 
Exhortations  are  .given  to  do  justice  and  love 
mercy,  rather  than  to  rest  in  a  self-centered 
religion  of  emotion.  The  obligation  of  brother- 
hood is  pressed  home  with  increasing  empha- 
sis. Distinctions  of  race  and  education  are  be- 
ing ignored,  and  the  inspiring  vision  of  the 
"parliament  of  man  and  the  federation  of  the 
world"  is  becoming  the  hope  of  many.  They 
are  following  George  Macdonald  when  he 
says :  "A  man  must  not  choose  his  neighbor ; 
he  must  take  the  neighbor  that  God  sends  him. 
In  him,  whomsoever  he  be,  lies  hidden  or  re- 
vealed a  beautiful  brother.  Thy  neighbor  is 
just  the  man  who  is  next  to  you  at  this  mo- 
ment. This  love  of  thy  neighbor  is  the  only 
door  out  of  the  dungeon  of  self." 

Individual  churches  in  trying  to  adapt  them- 
selves to  new  conditions  of  life,  oftentimes  go 
too  far  and  forget  that  the  real  power  is  the 
spiritual.  Here  and  there  a  church  is  provid- 
ing some  altruistic  outlet  for  religious  feeling 
by  appointing  committees  to  identify  the 


218  THE  BETTER  CITY 

church  with  various  social  lines  of  civic  and 
philanthropic  work.  When  cities  have  failed 
to  open  vacation  schools,  groups  of  churches 
have  given  the  money  and  the  workers  for 
this  beautiful  service.  In  referring  to  this,  Mr. 
Jacob  Riis  says :  "The  children's  plight  in  the 
tenement-house  region  in  which  'all  influences 
make  for  unrighteousness/  is  utterly  appall- 
ing. The  churches  standing  dark  and  silent  on 
week  days,  were  a  constant  reminder  of  our 
little  faith,  to  me.  You  have  done  a  lot  in 
opening  them  to  the  children,  and  done  it  right. 
The  blessing  will  not  fail  to  follow."  A 
writer  in  the  Outlook,  in  describing  a  needy 
part  of  New  York,  says  that  the  parish  house 
of  St.  Cyprian's  will  be  built  before  the 
church.  It  is  hoped  that  there  will  be  public 
baths,  pool  tables,  reading  rooms,  kindergarten 
and  accommodations  for  cooking  and  sewing. 
Scores  of  large  churches  have  awakened  out  of 
their  ecclesiastical  dream  and  are  now  doing 
the  things  that  the  community  needs  to  have 
done. 

Many  pastors  are  leading  their  people  into 
social  service  by  giving  such  advice  as  this : 
"This  year  I  have  come  back  especially  im- 
pressed with  the  social  significance  of  that  su- 
preme event,  the  Incarnation;  with  the  duties 
which  the  life  of  the  Divine  Man  shows  us, 
we  owe  to  each  other  as  friends  and  neighbors, 
as  partners  and  competitors,  as  employers  and 
employed,  as  more  favored  by  circumstance 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     219 

and  Divine  endowment,  and  less  favored  as 
brothers  all,  sons  of  one  loving  Father.  The 
inward,  Godward,  private  and  personal  side  of 
religion  must  ever  be  that  with  which  we  must 
start.  To  it  we  must  ever  recur.  But  to  stop 
there  is  to  lose  even  that  which  we  have. 
Love  to  God  is  the  living  root  of  which  love 
to  man  is  the  growth.  If  the  second  does  not 
appear,  it  is  a  proof  that  the  first  is  dead.  The 
great  need  of  our  day  is  that  men  would  have 
it  disclosed  to  them  to  what  an  extent  the 
selfishness  of  our  business  and  social  life  has 
encroached  upon  and  strangled  Christian  love, 
and  stayed  the  advance  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  upon  earth."* 

What  the  Church  of  the  future  will  be,  no 
one  can  predict.  For  the  present  it  is  clear 
that  organized  religion  to  be  the  power  that  it 
ought  to  be,  must  be  socialized.  The  buildings 
must  become  places  not  for  words  only,  but  for 
works;  to  them  must  come  the  distressed  and 
the  despairing,  the  perplexed  and  the  op- 
pressed, and  there  find  a  friend  in  need.  It 
must  in  a  word  become  a  week-day  ministry 
to  daily  needs. 

The  unselfish  life  is  the  highest  type  for 
every  day.  How  can  a  man  worship  in  a 
cathedral  and  be  happy  when  he  knows  that 
thousands  of  God's  creatures  are  living  in  un- 
healthy tenements;  that  factories  are  destroy- 


*W.  R.  Taylor,  Brick  Church,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 


220  THE  BETTER  CITY 

ing  life  and  limb,  and  that  unnecessary  dis- 
ease and  death  exist  on  all  sides?  The  call  is 
not  for  more  money  to  endow  cathedrals,  but 
for  more  love  that  touches  human  life. 

Organized  religion  finds  its  expression  God- 
ward  and  manward,  yet  it  is  difficult  to  keep 
its  proportionate  emphasis.  The  tendency  to- 
day is  toward  the  Institutional  Church,  yet 
such  a  church  is  a  failure  unless  it  is  also  an 
Inspirational  Church;  a  church  of  high  ideals. 
It  is  a  significant  fact  that  at  the  time  when 
the  social  conscience  is  being  aroused,  there 
comes  the  most  insistent  call  for  the  spiritual 
life.  Nor  will  it  be  satisfied  with  the  old  terms 
and  definitions;  the  spiritual  life  demanded 
must  be  the  practical,  and  must  aid  in  the  solu- 
tion of  social  problems.  But  mountain-top  in- 
spirations are  absolutely  necessary.  The  Vision 
must  come  before  the  Voice.  He  who  daily 
practices  the  presence  of  God  is  the  one  best 
fitted  to  lead.  The  constant  retirement  into 
the  Holy  of  Holies  for  communion  with  the 
Spirit  gives  the  secret  of  power. 

From  a  psychological  standpoint,  the  hold- 
ing of  a  high  ideal,  the  concentration  of 
thought  upon  the  social  ideals  of  Jesus,  will 
produce  results  that  cannot  be  understood  by 
the  mere  materialist.  This  is  the  power  which 
can  make  a  man  immune  to  evil  about  him,  and 
more  than  this,  it  gives  him  power  over  en- 
vironment itself.  Leading  men  to  recognize 
the  unity  of  all  life  is  the  quickest  way  to 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     221 

bringing  them  into  right  relations  to  their 
fellow  men.  The  Captain  of  Industry,  the 
breaker  boy  at  the  coal  mine,  the  bobbin  girl 
in  the  factory,  are  essentially  and  fundamen- 
tally one.  "Ye  be  of  one  blood,  my  brothers." 
Once  touch  men's  souls  with  this  sentiment, 
and  the  inequalities  and  wrongs  of  life  will 
soon  disappear. 

When  the  preacher  is  an  inspirer  to  social 
service,  the  church  becomes  a  power  house. 
To  such  a  church  men  will  go  not  for  dry  dis- 
cussion, or  for  the  cultivation  of  mere  aesthet- 
ic emotion,  but  for  inspiration ;  for  the  con- 
scious accumulation  of  force;  for  an  inflow  of 
divine  love,  so  that  they  may  become  co- 
workers  with  the  divine  in  establishing  the  so- 
ciety of  Jesus.  To  be  of  the  greatest  service, 
the  minister  need  not  drag  the  horrors  of  the 
slums  and  the  sins  of  men  into  his  pulpit  talk. 
Literature  is  full  of  that.  Better,  far  better, 
speak  of  the  good,  the  true,  the  beautiful,  the 
ideal  in  society  and  life,  until  men  are  stirred 
to  go  forth  as  leaders  in  civic  betterment  and 
in  the  movement  for  the  city  beautiful. 

It  is  the  rule  of  most  social  settlements  to 
pass  over  to  the  municipality  all  work  as  fast 
as  the  city  is  ready  to  take  it  up.  This  also 
ought  to  be  the  policy  of  Institutional 
Churches.  They  ought  to  do  the  work  that 
needs  to  be  done ;  healing  the  sick,  clothing  the 
naked;  educating,  entertaining,  conducting 
clubs  and  circles,  leading  in  the  good  work  of 

15 


222  THE  BETTER  CITY 

bettering  society;  making  their  work  educa- 
tional, and  passing  it  on  to  the  municipality 
just  as  fast  as  it  is  ready  to  take  it  up. 

An  Institutional  Church  is  not  simply  an 
aggregate  of  institutions  with  stereotyped 
methods.  Its  value  lies  in  its  spirit  of  minis- 
tration and  in  its  power  to  adapt  itself  to  the 
daily  needs  of  the  entire  community.  The 
City  of  the  Angels  is  a  City  of  Churches. 
Every  phase  of  religious  thought  is  here  repre- 
sented, and  every  world  religion  has  its  follow- 
ing. The  regular  churches  are  many  in  num- 
ber, well  housed  and  strong  in  their  influence, 
embracing  in  their  membership  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  prominent  and  wealthy  citizens — a 
social  power  which,  if  once  combined,  none  of 
the  evil  forces  could  stand  before  it.  But 
power  unused,  decays.  Power  misdirected  is 
wasted.  The  division  into  innumerable  sects 
is  a  source  of  great  weakness.  Divisions  on 
account  of  non-essentials  of  belief  are  foolish 
and  unwise.  In  the  effort  on  the  part  of  organ- 
ized religion  to  adapt  itself  to  changed  condi- 
tions of  society,  there  must  de  developed  a 
unity  of  thought  and  effort  before  there  can 
be  large  results  in  social  service.  The  spirit 
of  "getting  together"  is  in  the  air.  At  last  the 
majority  of  the  churches  has  begun  to  federate 
their  forces.  In  Los  Angeles,  the  Church  Fed- 
eration includes  nearly  every  evangelical 
church,  and  every  member  of  the  hundred  or 
more  churches  included  is  also  a  member  of 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     223 

the  Federation.  The  Council  of  this  organiza- 
tion, which  meets  once  a  month,  is  elected  by 
representatives  from  the  different  churches. 
It  includes  both  ministers  and  laymen,  in 
about  equal  numbers,  and  practically  every 
church  with  a  membership  of  three  hundred 
or  more  is  represented  in  the  Council.  The 
Council  is  subdivided  into  eight  standing  com- 
mittees, namely:  Executive,  Evangelistic,  Fi- 
nancial, Investigation  of  Inter-denominational 
Enterprises,  Parish  and  Canvassing,  Coffee 
Clubs,  Sunday  Afternoon  Popular  Meetings, 
and  Civic  Righteousness. 

Some  of  the  results  of  this  splendid  union 
are  already  evident.  Perfect  harmony  and  a 
larger  fellowship  already  testify  to  a  possibil- 
ity of  uniting  all  Christian  people  on  moral 
issues. 

Social  and  municipal  questions  are  now  be- 
ing thought  of  as  important.  From  now  on 
the  Federation  of  Churches  is  a  force  to  be 
reckoned  with  by  the  machine  politicians. 
Christian  people  are  coming  to  see  that  they 
are  not  merely  pilgrims  to  another  world,  but 
citizens  of  this  world,  with  power  to  introduce 
a  heavenly  society  here  and  now.  The  move- 
ment in  behalf  of  the  young  people  which  in 
the  last  few  years  has  gained  great  momen- 
tum is  being  turned  into  practical  channels 
along  the  lines  of  Christian  citizenship.  Many 
of  the  young  men  thus  trained  are  entering 
into  political  life  with  high  ideals  of  service. 


224  THE  BETTER  CITY 

The  Christian  Endeavors  of  the  city  dis- 
covered in  1903  the  need  of  a  place  where  men 
could  go  to  pass  their  leisure  time  with  oppor- 
tunities for  reading  or  playing  games,  and 
where  good  wholesome  food  could  be  obtained 
as  cheaply  as  possible.  This  resulted  in  the 
opening  of  Coffee  Club  No.  1,  at  133  East 
Second  Street,  which  proved  such  a  success 
that  Coffee  Club  No.  2  was  soon  opened  at 
112  Court  Street.  Papers,  magazines  and 
games  were  provided  for  the  free  use  of  the 
men,  and  the  lunch  service  has  been  increased 
from  coffee  and  rolls,  or  doughnuts,  provided 
at  first,  to  a  full  menu.  The  clubs  are  main- 
tained by  the  profits  of  the  lunch  counter.  All 
money  remaining  after  the  current  expenses 
have  been  met  has  been  used  to  improve  the 
club  appointments,  or  to  establish  new  ones. 
This  Coffee  Club  movement  was  so  success- 
ful that  the  Church  Federation  decided  to  join 
in  this  practical  social  service  with  the  Coffee 
Club  Association.  In  June,  1906,  they  opened 
large  and  beautiful  rooms  in  the  basement  at 
Third  and  Main  Streets.  Here  is  a  place  for 
the  young  men  who  are  strangers  in  the  city, 
to  become  acquainted;  for  the  young  man  in 
business  who  has  for  a  home  only  a  lonely 
room,  to  meet  with  his  friends;  a  place  for 
business  men  to  meet  in  lunch  hour  confer- 
ences ;  a  place  for  committee  meetings  and  for 
the  members  of  the  Church  Federation  to 
gather  and  to  learn  to  know  each  other  better 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     225 

and  plan  for  the  extension  and  the  enlargement 
of  their  work. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  few  cities  is  there 
such  a  hearty  cooperation  between  the  Cath- 
olics and  Protestants  in  all  matters  affecting 
public  morality,  as  in  this  city.  Priest  and 
minister,  Episcopal  and  Roman  bishop  are 
oftentimes  upon  the  same  platform,  engaged  in 
the  same  good  work.  In  addition  to  its  time- 
honored  and  noble  philanthropies,  the  Catholic 
Church  is  using  its  great  powers  more  and 
more  in  the  line  of  general  social  service. 

For  years  the  Salvation  Army  and  the  Vol- 
unteers of  America  have  been  doing  social  as 
well  as  evangelistic  work.  Both  are  now 
housed  in  well-equipped  buildings,  with  clin- 
ics, employment  offices,  clothing  departments, 
lodgings,  coffee  houses  and  reading  rooms. 
They  are  especially  fitted  to  conserve  the  great 
social  waste.  Through  these  organizations, 
thousands  of  destitute  women  and  children 
have  their  lives  brightened  by  trips  to  the  sea. 

A  noteworthy  movement  in  this  city  is  that 
of  Christ  Church,  where  the  Men's  Club 
have  built  a  commodious  club  house  which 
will  be  the  gathering  point  for  all  the  men 
who  are  interested  in  a  larger  life  for  them- 
selves and  for  the  city — a  place  where  plans 
will  be  formed  for  turning  spiritual  power  into 
practical  service ;  where  new  ideas  of  value  will 
be  created;  where  people  will  learn  that  social 


226  THE  BETTER  CITY 

service  is  more  to  be  desired  than  personal 
gain. 

In  a  recent  description  of  a  new  undertaking 
for  the  good  of  the  colored  race,  it  was  said 
that  whereas  the  father  sought  to  achieve  per- 
sonal success,  the  son's  ideal  is  to  achieve  the 
success  of  the  community.  Personal  holiness 
and  social  welfare  cannot  be  separated  in  the 
teachings  of  the  Church  if  organized  religion 
is  to  be  effective.  The  new  professions  may 
prove  to  be  as  sacred  as  the  gospel  ministry, 
and  many  young  men  who  desire  to  be  of  serv- 
ice to  the  world  will  consecrate  themselves  to 
be  city  architects,  sanitary  engineers,  superin- 
tendents of  playgrounds,  school  gardens,  coffee 
clubs,  head  workers  in  settlements — always  on 
the  firing  line,  where  the  victory  is  to  be  won. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  are 
recognized  as  strong  factors  in  organized  re- 
ligion. They  together  with  the  Church  are 
hearing  the  call  of  the  larger  social  service. 
Through  their  educational  classes  and  athletic 
work,  they  are  touching  large  numbers  of  lives 
for  good.  No  one  can  read  that  thrilling  de- 
scription of  the  life  of  the  working  girl  por- 
trayed in  "The  Long  Day"  without  wondering 
if  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  will  not  earnestly  undertake 
to  change  the  conditions  which  mean  so  much 
for  so  many  girls.  The  plans  for  the  new 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  building  include  many  features 
which  will  prove  of  great  social  value.  Cannot 
this  institution  become  even  more  largely  so- 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     227 

cialized?  Is  there  not  a  possibility  that  the 
great  centralized  institution  drawing  individ- 
uals out  of  evil  conditions  and  bad  environ- 
ment may  be  broken  into  smaller  neighbor- 
hood groups,  as  far  as  possible,  the  member- 
ship working  and  living  in  these  community 
centers,  for  the  social  and  moral  uplift  of  all 
young  men,  foreigners  as  well  as  Americans, 
degenerates  and  defectives,  as  well  as  the  well 
born  and  carefully  nurtured? 

Among  the  institutions  of  Los  Angeles  most 
thoroughly  socialized  is  the  Bethlehem  Insti- 
tutional Church,  or  as  it  is  now  known,  the 
Bethlehem  Institutions.  Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson,  the 
widely  known  philanthropist  of  St.  Louis, 
speaks  of  it  as  "the  best  assortment  of  self- 
helping  and  restorative  things  I  know  of  any- 
where." The  value  of  this  work  consists  not 
in  the  great  number  of  departments,  but  in 
the  spirit  which  permeates  all.  The  pastor  and 
his  family  have  lived  in  this  congested  district, 
in  the  midst  of  saloons  and  red-lights,  for 
eleven  years,  living  the  life  of  loving  service. 
A  noble  group  of  altruistic  workers  have  gath- 
ered about  them.  All  the  departments  of  the 
work  are  the  result  of  a  normal  growth,  the 
satisfying  of  a  pressing  need.  The  Church  is 
the  center  of  all,  not  sectarian,  but  deeply 
spiritual,  and  working  in  perfect  harmony 
with  Hebrews  and  Catholics.  Its  ministry 
takes  the  form  of  a  free  dispensary  for  the 
suffering  ones;  a  public  bath  house,  the  fore- 


228  THE  BETTER  CITY 

runner  of  local  Municipal  Baths,  Coffee  Clubs 
and  Reading  Rooms,  open  from  6  A.  M.  until 
midnight;  Men's  Hotels,  clean  homelike  places 
where  there  are  no  rules,  and  no  man  is  asked 
about  his  past  life,  but  where  everyone  is  ex- 
pected to  live  as  a  gentleman  in  a  large  family 
group ;  halls  for  concerts,  lectures,  and  as  com- 
mon civic  centers;  an  industrial  department 
where  every  man  is  put  to  work  until  employ- 
ment can  be  obtained  through  the  large  Em- 
ployment Department.  There  is  no  charity, 
except  as  one  likes  to  help  a  brother.  Helping 
men  to  help  themselves  is  carried  out  to  the 
full,  and  men  are  helped  to  be  themselves, 
making  it  possible  to  live  out  their  largest  lives. 
As  the  neighborhood  is  foreign,  the  policy  of 
Bethlehem  to  reach  all  the  people,  has  led  to 
the  establishment  of  night  schools  for  Spanish, 
Greek,  Italian,  Russian  and  Japanese  in  the 
effort  to  educate  all  into  the  highest  citizen- 
ship. 

Once  a  year  students  in  Sociology  from  four 
Southern  California  colleges,  spend  a  week  at 
Bethlehem,  studying  with  the  pastor  all  the 
social  conditions  of  the  city,  listening  to  the 
reports  of  all  the  leaders  in  reform  and  those 
who  are  seeking  to  make  a  better  city.  These 
students  leave  with  a  determination  to  make 
their  lives  count  in  the  work  of  social  regenera- 
tion. There  are  at  all  times  students  in  resi- 
dence, and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  many  more 
will  take  advantage  of  this  opportunity  of 


ORGANIZED  RELIGION  SOCIALIZED     229 

working  in  and  with  this  neighborhood.  A 
new  and  far-reaching  educational  movement 
has  been  inaugurated  under  the  leadership  of 
Bethlehem.  The  high  schools  in  Southern 
California  are  being  offered  the  privilege  of 
hearing  social  experts  on  questions  of  social 
and  civic  import.  The  object  of  this  lecture 
work  is  to  familiarize  those  young  men  and 
women,  many  of  whom  will  be  leaders  in  city 
life  within  the  next  few  years,  with  the  great 
social  problems  to  be  met,  that  they  may  ap- 
preciate their  magnitude,  and  be  fitted  to  do 
their  share  toward  their  solution.  The  Beth- 
lehem Deaconess  conducts  a  Summer  School 
of  Social  Service  for  women,  in  which  students 
and  teachers  may  learn  to  put  in  practice  the 
uplifting  thoughts  of  the  school  room. 

In  extending  the  Bethlehem  idea,  three  new 
neighborhoods  have  been  entered,  in  each  of 
which,  when  the  institutions  are  fully  devel- 
oped, as  large  work  will  be  done  as  at  the 
Mother  House.  As  an  example  of  unity  in 
work  and  purpose,  the  Spanish  Presbyterian 
Church  conducts  its  services  in  the  Bethlehem 
building,  and  for  a  year  this  was  the  meeting 
place  for  the  Russian  Church,  known  as  the 
Brotherhood  of  Spiritual  Christians.  They  are 
still  closely  allied  to  the  Institution.  The  Beth- 
lehem spirit  of  loving  service  is  expressed  by 
the  poem  of  John  G.  Whittier,  adopted  as  the 
Bethlehem  Hymn. 


230  THE  BETTER  CITY 

"O,    Brother   Man,   fold   to   thy   heart   thy   brother! 
For  where  love  dwells,  the  peace  of  God  is  there, 
To  worship  rightly  is  to  love  each  other; 
Each  smile  a  hymn,  each  kindly  deed  a  prayer. 

"Follow  with  reverent  steps  the  great  example 
Of  Him  whose  holy  work  was  doing  good; 
So  shall  the  wide  earth  seem  our  Father's  temple, 
Each  loving  life,  a  psalm  of  gratitude." 

The  recognition  of  the  unity  of  life,  of  the 
presence  and  power  of  God  in  the  human  soul, 
of  the  possibilities  of  development  of  every 
man,  are  thoughts  that  are  stirring  men's 
minds  more  and  more,  leading  men  to  unite  in 
the  effort  to  develop  the  ideal  society  which 
was  the  dream  of  Jesus.  Organized  religion 
socialized  will  be  the  greatest  power  in  making 
this  a  Better  City. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  OTHER  FELLOW 

In  that  beautiful  oriental  story  of  the  brides- 
maids, told  by  Jesus,  five  were  prudent,  taking 
with  them  extra  oil  for  their  vessels,  ready  for 
an  emergency.  When  the  bridegroom  came 
they  were  the  only  ones  prepared  to  enter  in. 
"They  that  were  ready  went  in."  Opportun- 
ity does  not  make  the  man;  it  reveals  him. 
Doors  open  to  prepared  ones.  They  that  are 
ready  may  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  nature, 
art,  music,  literature  or  love. 

There  is  great  danger  in  this  commercial 
age  that  the  only  preparation  may  be  to  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Money.  If  the  higher  in- 
terests of  life  are  neglected  in  youth,  then  in 
after  years  the  doors  that  lead  into  the  higher 
spiritual  realms  will  be  shut.  Andrew  Carne- 
gie's word  ought  to  be  accepted  as  truth  when 
he  says :  "Money  does  not  make  a  man  happy. 
I  would  give  up  all  the  wealth  I  have  rather 
than  be  denied  the  pleasures  that  come  from 
the  study  of  literature  and  art.  If  Shakespeare 
and  Wagner,  the  mountain  peaks  of  literature 
and  music,  were  taken  out  of  my  life,  life 
would  be  very  poor  indeed.  Millionaires  who 
live  mostly  for  making  money  have  a  sorry 
time  of  it  in  comparison  with  the  possibilities 


232  THE  BETTER  CITY 


of  the  life  they  might  live."  In  a  more  recent 
address,  he  reveals  the  fact  that  his  mind  is 
being  drawn  even  more  strongly  to  the  spirit- 
ual ideals.  He  said,  referring  to  his  own  city  :* 
"There  is  room  for  many  things  of  the  spirit 
in  our  city.  Things  material  are  abundant, 
our  mills  and  factories  numerous,  large  and 
prosperous;  but  things  material,  including 
money  itself,  should  be  only  the  foundation 
upon  which  are  reared  things  spiritual.  Our 
mines  of  coal  and  iron  have  not  completed 
their  mission  when  transmitted  into  articles 
for  use,  and  these  into  dollars.  All  is  still  on 
the  material  plane.  Not  till  the  dollars  are 
transmuted  into  service  for  others  in  one  of 
the  many  forms  best  calculated  to  appeal  to 
and  develop  those  higher  things  of  the  moral, 
intellectual  and  aesthetic  domain,  has  wealth 
completely  justified  its  existence.  Dollars  are 
only  dross  until  spiritualized,  a  means  to  an 
end;  and  miserable  is  the  man,  mean  and 
squalid  his  life,  who  knows  no  better  than  to 
deaden  his  soul  by  mere  possession,  counting 
over  a  hoard  which  holds  him  down,  or  using 
his  faculties  in  old  age  in  augmenting  the 
useless  stuff  that  ministers  not  to  any  taste 
worthy  of  man." 

The  altruistic  spirit  is  not  a  miraculous  gift, 
but  rather  the  result  of  daily  thoughts  and 
daily  deeds.  Looking  out  for  one's  self  will 


'Pittsburg. 


THE  OTHER  FELLOW  233 

never  enable  a  person  to  look  out  for  the  in- 
terests of  the  other  fellow.  But  he  who  does 
a  kind  deed  today  is  preparing  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  love  and  service  tomorrow. 
The  priest  and  the  Levite  in  the  gospel  story 
were  very  religious,  yet  when  the  opportunity 
came  to  them  of  helping  the  man  in  need, 
they  were  not  ready,  but  passed  by  on  the 
other  side.  Living  only  in  the  kingdom  of 
formal  religious  observance,  they  were  not 
able  to  enter  into  the  larger  kingdom  of  loving 
service. 

The  world  today  needs  the  good  Samaritan 
— the  man  with  the  altruistic  spirit  in  his 
breast  for  the  other  fellow,  whether  he  be 
prisoner,  tramp,  working  man  or  capitalist. 
Because  of  the  rapid  increase  of  this  spirit  in 
the  hearts  of  men,  we  can  but  be  hopeful  for 
the  coming  age.  The  object  of  this  chapter 
is  to  bring  home  to  each  reader  the  thought  of 
his  own  responsibility  to  the  other  fellow,  and 
to  show  what  he  can  do  to  help  him  to  rise 
out  of  his  poverty,  his  vice  and  his  ignorance. 
Experience  has  shown  that  in  helping  another 
to  help  himself,  we  at  the  same  time  help  our- 
selves. 

An  apostle  of  old  once  said  in  substance: 
"If  a  brother  or  sister  be  hungry  or  naked  and 
you  say,  'God  bless  you,  I  hope  that  you  will 
find  warmth  and  food,'  what  does  it  profit 
you?"  If  anyone  is  to  be  truly  helpful  to  an- 
other who  is  in  need,  there  must  be  a  personal 


234  THE  BETTER  CITY 

touch,  a  real  exhibition  of  friendship.  Henry 
Clay  Trumbull  has  well  described  the  meaning 
of  friendship :  "It  consists  in  loving  rather 
than  in  being  loved,  in  being  a  friend  rather 
than  in  having  a  friend ;  in  giving  our  affection 
unselfishly  and  unswervingly  to  another — not 
in  being  the  object  of  another's  affections." 
"Love  reckoneth  not  up  her  wrongs,"  but  con- 
tinues to  work  with  the  needy  one  though  he 
be  both  unlovely  and  ungrateful.  It  is  one  of 
the  axioms  of  the  science  of  charity,  that  relief 
must  be  sympathetic.  Nothing  short  of  per- 
sonal human  sympathy  and  kindness  have  in 
them  healing  power. 

Of  late  we  have  had  many  exhibitions  of 
world-wide  sympathy,  showing  that  the  hearts 
of  men  are  ringing  true  to  the  best  that  is  in 
them.  Abundant  relief  has  been  sent  to  the 
famine-stricken  in  India,  Japan  and  China. 
But  it  remained  for  the  dreadful  calamity 
which  befell  the  city  by  the  Golden  Gate  to 
show  in  what  a  full-hearted  measure  men  can 
at  times  think  and  act  unselfishly.  The  ethi- 
cal gain  through  this  outpouring  of  money  and 
food  and  personal  service  has  been  greater 
by  far  than  any  material  loss.  The  calamity 
set  in  motion  a  tidal  wave  of  helpful  sym- 
pathy which  swept  around  the  world.  Many 
who  for  the  first  time  discovered  the  pleasure 
of  giving  themselves  in  personal  service,  will 
never  cease  in  their  good  works,  but  will  be- 
come permanent  factors  in  the  social  uplift  of 


THE   OTHER  FELLOW  235 

the  world.  In  every  city  there  is  an  increas- 
ing group  of  those  who  are  altruistic,  deeply 
spiritual,  and  moved  by  the  power  of  the  social 
passion.  They  are  intensely  interested  in  the 
"man  with  the  hoe"  and  in  "those  without  the 
camp."  In  olden  times  the  leper  was  driven 
without  the  camp  to  exist  as  best  he  could 
until  death  brought  relief.  Today  men  of  Fa- 
ther Damiens'  type  are  living  beside  them  with 
a  helpful  ministry;  and  better  still,  noble- 
hearted  individuals,  devoted  to  the  healing  art, 
are  seeking  to  find  the  cause  and  the  cure  of 
the  dreadful  plague.  Nor  is  it  enough  to 
drive  the  moral  leper  without  the  camp.  The 
philanthropist  of  the  present  must  study  the 
cause  and  the  cure  of  the  vice  and  crime  which 
are  such  a  hindrance  to  the  moral  progress  of 
society,  so  as  to  put  things  right  at  the  foun- 
tain head. 

Making  man  fit  to  survive  is  far  better  than 
trusting  to  the  operation  of  the  evolutionary 
law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  The  strong 
animal  drives  the  weakling  to  the  wall,  but  in 
a  strong  man  there  ought  to  be  developed  the 
God-like  attribute  of  devoting  his  best  effort  to 
defend  the  weak  one.  The  thought  of  getting 
together  for  the  purpose  of  being  mutually 
helpful  as  brothers  all,  may  seem  to  many  as 
almost  Utopian,  yet  it  is  growing,  and  the 
progress  toward  this  ideal  is  so  rapid  that 
there  ought  to  be  few  doubters  left  as  to  the 
final  outcome. 


236  THE  BETTER  CITY 

In  the  industrial  world  fortunes  are  now  be- 
ing made  from  the  by-products  which  come 
from  what  was  formerly  discarded.  In  the 
great  abattoirs,  nothing  is  lost.  The  old  dump 
heap  at  the  smelter  is  now  worth  more  than 
the  product  of  many  mines.  The  refuse  picked 
from  the  street  sweepings  goes  far  toward 
paying  the  expenses  of  cleaning  New  York's 
streets.  Now  if  this  seeming  material  waste 
is  of  so  much  value,  is  there  not  social  value 
to  be  redeemed  from  our  great  social  waste? 
Read  any  of  the  recent  descriptive  books  tell- 
ing how  the  other  half  lives ;  visit  Whitechapel 
in  London,  or  the  slums  of  our  great  cities, 
and  answer  for  yourself  the  question  whether 
there  is  not  a  far  greater  loss  of  social  values 
than  would  ever  be  permitted  in  the  industrial 
life.  Is  not  a  man  better  than  a  sheep?  And 
is  not  a  redeemed  man  better  than  the  by- 
product of  a  factory?  The  captains  of  indus- 
try employ  trained  scientists  and  experts  to 
transform  waste  into  value,  yet  until  recently 
little  has  been  done  with  the  social  waste  of 
the  world.  The  city  and  the  nation  ought  to 
employ  noted  sociologists  and  trained  experts 
to  bring  forth  value  from  social  waste.  When 
the  mighty  call  came  for  help  from  the 
stricken  city  of  San  Francisco,  the  President 
was  quick  to  act  in  sending  noted  specialists 
to  aid  in  the  great  work  or  rehabilitation.  And 
may  we  not  hope  that  there  will  soon  be  in- 
augurated a  new  department  of  government 


<s$ 


THE  OTHER  FELLOW  237 

service,  composed  of  sociological  experts,  who 
shall  be  placed  upon  an  equality  with  the  De- 
partment of  Commerce,  and  that  every  city 
shall  have  its  Superintendent  of  Social  Serv- 
ice, trained  in  mind  and  in  heart  for  the  great 
work  of  social  uplift.  In  the  matter  of  taking 
account  of  moral  values,  New  Zealand  is  far 
ahead  in  the  great  social  work  of  the  world. 
It  has  made  taxpayers  out  of  tramps  and  fel- 
low citizens  out  of  slum  dwellers.  Happily, 
interest  in  the  human  wreckage  of  the  world 
is  now  being  aroused.  On  every  hand  we  find 
the  tramps,  the  beach  combers  of  society,  the 
out-of-works  who  have  been  made  such  be- 
cause of  the  changed  industrial  conditions ;  the 
drunkard,  the  product  of  the  American  saloon ; 
the  prisoners  separated  from  the  touch  of  so- 
ciety; the  scarlet  woman  scorned  by  her  sis- 
ters; the  pauper  who  has  dropped  forever  be- 
low the  line  of  self-support  and  self-respect; 
and  having  seen  these,  the  great  heart  of  the 
world  can  never  again  rest  at  ease  in  its  luxury 
and  wealth.  Men  are  bound  together  by  heart 
strings.  "No  man  liveth  to  himself."  "Each 
for  all  and  all  for  each"  is  the  guiding  rule  in 
the  ideal  society  which  is  to  be.  Today  we 
are  separated  into  castes  and  classes.  There 
is  the  great  gulf  between  the  master  and  serv- 
ant, rich  and  poor,  learned  and  ignorant,  good 
and  bad.  Men  are  sons  of  a  common  Father, 
but  not  brothers  all,  or  at  least  their  brother- 
hood is  not  yet  actualized.  This  condition 
16 


238  THE  BETTER  CITY 

cannot  long  obtain,  for  it  is  evident  to  all  that 
progress  of  society  is  not  by  the  advance  of 
the  exceptional  men,  but  by  the  gradual  uplift 
of  the  helpless  and  the  weak;  it  is  in  the 
forward  march  of  the  masses,  and  not  in  the 
progress  made  by  an  elect  few.  You  and  I, 
my  brother,  will  truly  rise  in  the  world  not  by 
rising  upon  our  fellows  or  above  them,  but  by 
seeking  their  mutual  uplift  and  taking  them 
along  with  us.  No  man  should  ever  go  slum- 
ming out  of  curiosity,  for  the  dwellers  in  our 
slums  are  not  like  strange  creatures  in  a  men- 
agerie; they  are  but  weak  and  neglected  broth- 
ers, for  whose  condition  we  may  be  in  part 
responsible ;  we  are  therefore  to  go  down  to 
them  into  the  darkness  in  which  they  live, 
searching  for  the  good  and  not  for  the  bad, 
endeavoring  to  call  out  the  best  that  is  in  them. 
In  that  spirit  we  are  to  go  into  the  jails  and 
police  courts  and  look  upon  the  wreck  and 
ruin  wrought  by  sin ;  into  the  filthy  tenements 
where  the  squalor  and  disease  abide;  go  into 
the  groggery  and  barrel  house  where  men  and 
women  are  sunk  in  debauchery;  into  the  lower 
regions  of  the  demimonde  where  men  and 
women  are  sunk  beneath  the  beasts ;  into  the 
gambler's  den  where  men  entice  the  young  to 
their  ruin  or  enchain  them  in  a  fearful  habit 
from  which  they  cannot  free  themselves;  and 
when  the  horror  of  all  this  has  taken  hold  of 
your  heart,  you  will  be  the  first  to  join  the 
noble  rank  of  reformers ;  and  you  will  learn  to 


THE   OTHER  FELLOW  239 

have  more  sympathy  with  rescue  workers  and 
Salvation  Army  lasses  as  they  toil  and  pray 
that  a  few  may  be  brought  out  of  that  wretch- 
edness and  misery  into  a  better  life.  The  gen- 
tle white-capped  women  caring  for  those  who 
are  dying  in  a  hospital  broken  through  dissipa- 
tion and  defilement,  will  also  appear  to  you  like 
Angels  of  Mercy  sent  to  a  sin-cursed  world. 

Ye  men  who  are  living  soft,  easy  lives,  think- 
ing only  of  self  and  family,  is  it  not  time  to 
begin  to  think  of  the  other  fellow?  Is  it  not 
worth  while  to  live  so  that  it  may  be  said  of 
you  what  was  said  of  one  of  the  noblest  men 
as  they  laid  him  away,  "He  was  a  great-hearted 
and  true-hearted  man.  He  cared  not  for  riches 
and  station.  He  rose  far  above  distinctions 
and  divisions.  He  was  a  friend  and  a  brother 
of  men.  His  heart  was  large  enough  for  all 
the  people.  The  friend  of  man,  the  friend  of 
the  weary  and  worn,  the  weakest  and  the 
worst."*  The  glory  of  this  man  lay  not  in  the 
fact  that  he  was  a  captain  of  industry,  but  in 
the  fact  that  he  was  a  loving  brother  to  every 
man. 

The  lift  of  every  man's  heart  is  upward;  to 
help  another  human  soul  in  its  upward  evolu- 
tion is  life's  greatest  and  most  joyful  privilege ; 
to  lend  ourselves  each  to  the  other  as  an  in- 
spiration to  grander  living  is  life's  highest 
ministry  and  reward. 


*Samuel  M.  Jones,  Toledo. 


240  THE  BETTER  CITY 

Do  you  say  that  these  sentiments  may  sound 
well?  Yes,  but  they  would  appear  still  better 
if  applied  to  all  conditions  of  life.  Consider  for 
instance,  what  would  be  the  result  if  they  were 
applied  to  the  man  who  has  broken  the  laws  of 
the  land.  The  prisoner  is  for  the  most  part 
a  good  man  gone  wrong,  and  by  proper  treat- 
ment is  capable  of  redemption.  Only  about 
ten  per  cent  of  the  inmates  of  our  jails  and 
penitentiaries  may  be  considered  as  real  crim- 
inals, but  are  brought  to  their  condition  by 
bad  environment,  bad  parentage,  physical  mal- 
formation, or  weak  will.  According  to  the  old 
idea  of  retributive  punishment,  the  law  breaker 
must  feel  the  full  vengeance  of  society  for  the 
crime  he  had  committed.  It  was  fancied  that 
this  would  deter  him  from  future  crimes  and 
be  a  warning  to  others.  But  such  has  not  been 
the  result  of  the  age-long  system  of  retributive 
punishment.  The  man  who  has  been  in  prison 
is  more  likely  to  offend  again.  The  man  who 
is  a  law  breaker  is  still  a  man  and  like  us  needs 
a  friend  and  helpful  surroundings.  The  best 
of  men  would  receive  harm  if  herded  together 
in  a  common  jail.  The  psychological  effect 
would  be  harmful  to  the  entire  man.  In  a  re- 
cent report  on  prisons,  a  writer  says :  "There 
is  need  of  hope  for  every  individual.  If  you 
send  a  man  to  the  county  jail  or  put  him  in 
prison  for  a  fixed  term,  hope  is  gone,  the 
stigma  of  prison  is  upon  him ;  the  long  blank 
years  are  before  him;  he  is  conscious  more  or 


THE   OTHER  FELLOW  241 

less  that  he  is  on  the  way  toward  becoming  a 
worse  man;  he  gives  himself  up  to  his  destiny 
and  abandons  himself  to  a  riot  of  bad  inten- 
tions and  evil  thoughts.  Keep  his  hope  alive; 
keep  him  out  of  prison,  under  the  charge  of  a 
probation  officer;  let  him  feel  that  if  he  be- 
haves himself,  he  may  return  back  in  freedom 
to  his  natural  surroundings  without  ever  hav- 
ing entered  prison.  At  the  same  time,  fear 
must  go  hand  in  hand  with  hope;  he  must  be 
made  to  feel  that  if  he  fails,  prison  life  is  the 
result.  The  probation  law  provides  just  these 
possibilities.  When  the  judge  sees  fit  to  give 
a  man  another  chance,  he  has  all  the  help  that 
a  kind  probation  officer  can  give  him,  and 
above  all,  he  is  kept  away  from  the  prison 
associations.  This  system  has  been  so  suc- 
cessful with  child  delinquents,  it  is  surprising 
that  it  is  not  more  often  resorted  to  in  the 
case  of  adults.  In  the  light  of  dollars  and 
cents,  it  pays  to  reform  a  prisoner,  rather  than 
to  keep  him  locked  up  in  a  prison  whose  meth- 
ods may  only  deform  him.  The  treatment  of 
the  criminal  today  ought  to  be  reformative 
rather  than  punitive.  This  is  a  principle  only 
partially  carried  out  in  any  California  city. 
The  truant  officer  looks  after  the  boys  and  girls 
who  are  not  in  school,  and  places  them  in  the 
truant  school.  If  brought  before  the  Juvenilr 
Court,  the  Probation  officer  becomes  respon- 
sible to  the  Court  for  their  conduct.  The  re- 
form school  is  used  only  as  a  last  resort,  and 


242  THE  BETTER  CITY 

in  this  state  it  is  rapidly  being  depopulated. 
The  record  thus  far  shows  that  the  truant  of- 
ficer, and  the  parental  school,  return  seventy- 
five  or  eighty  per  cent  back  on  the  right  track, 
to  remain  there.  The  Juvenile  Court  is  cred- 
ited with  an  equally  high  per  cent.  What 
next?  The  prisons?  No,  it  is  the  reforma- 
tory. When  criminals  under  thirty-five  are 
given  a  chance  to  make  a  good  record  for 
themselves,  seventy-five  per  cent  of  these  can 
be  returned  to  their  home  and  friends  better, 
or  at  least  not  worse  for  their  experience.  The 
incorrigible  remainder  are  the  only  ones  that 
the  penitentiary  ought  to  claim.  A  reforma- 
tory is  a  place  of  hope,  for  by  good  conduct 
and  study  and  work  every  man  may  cut  short 
his  sentence  and  become  proficient  as  an  ap- 
prentice in  several  trades.  A  man  with  a  five- 
year  sentence  may  by  good  conduct  regain  his 
freedom  in  one  year. 

In  Massachusetts  most  of  the  habitual 
drunkards  under  thirty-five  are  sent  to  the  re- 
formatory for  a  year  and  a  day,  rather  than 
subjected  to  the  method  employed  in  most 
states,  which  does  not  aid  these  men  in  the 
recovery  of  their  normal  life.  Such  unfortu- 
nates ought  to  be  considered  diseased  and  sent 
to  a  farm,  where  by  work,  good  fresh  air,  and 
pleasant  surroundings  they  could  be  made 
strong  in  body  and  in  will  power,  and  able  to 
meet  the  temptation  which  society  places  in 
their  way. 


THE  OTHER  FELLOW  243 

Too  great  emphasis  cannot  be  laid  upon 
man's  duty  to  his  fellow  man  who  has  fallen 
by  the  way.  More  money,  more  thought,  and 
more  personal  service  should  be  expended  on 
him,  for  is  he  not  our  brother?  Yet  after  all 
has  been  done  that  it  is  possible  to  do  in  this 
way,  it  is  not  enough,  for  there  are  causes 
which  must  be  removed  before  there  can  be 
any  great  gain.  Rescue  workers  feel  that  they 
are  standing  at  the  foot  of  a  cliff  picking  up  a 
few  of  the  many  who  have  been  thrown  over 
and  have  fallen  at  their  feet,  healing  them  and 
starting  them  upward,  some  of  them  to  be 
thrown  over  again  and  again.  Better  put  a 
fence  at  the  top  and  change  the  forces  which 
make  for  destruction. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  decide  where  to  put 
the  stress  of  our  labor  for  the  good  of  human- 
ity. Because  individual  sin  and  wretchedness 
and  misery  press  so  closely  upon  us,  we  are 
led  to  feel  that  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world  is 
to  fit  the  socially  disabled  ones  to  take  their 
place  in  the  ranks  of  the  independent.  The 
teacher,  the  preacher,  the  rescue  worker  are 
seeking  to  give  strength  to  the  weak  will,  that 
there  may  be  the  power  within  to  resist  the  evil. 
But  there  are  social  causes  which  make  for  de- 
pendency and  crime  that  are  beyond  the  con- 
trol of  the  individual.  It  is  the  growing  belief 
that  expending  our  effort  upon  results  is  not 
enough,  but  that  our  main  effort  must  be  di- 
rected t  . -i.rd  the  destruction  of  the  social 


244  THE  BETTER  CITY 

causes  for  the  spiritual  wreckage.  In  this  way 
alone  will  permanent  help  come  to  those  who 
cannot  help  themselves — the  child,  the  sick,  the 
man  with  a  weak  will.  The  doing  of  kindly 
deeds  for  the  poor  that  we  may  have  peace  of 
mind  and  a  pleasant  sense  of  duty  well  done 
has  its  origin  not  in  an  altruistic  but  a  selfish 
impulse.  The  sentiment,  "Throw  out  the  life 
line,"  is  not  enough.  Go  to  the  bathing 
beaches  and  see  a  better  life  line — one 
stretched  out  into  the  surf  where  thousands  of 
bathers  can  disport  themselves  without  fear  of 
drowning.  "Put  out  the  life  line — mend  the 
broken  rail,  destroy  the  saloon,  brothel  and 
gambling  den,  make  and  enforce  laws  against 
child  labor,  which  is  making  the  'hoe  man.' 
Prosecute  the  makers  of  impure  foods  and 
medicines,  destroy  the  tenements  and  rooker- 
ies, replacing  them  with  decent  homes.  Stand 
for  a  living  wage  for  all  men.  These  are  a 
few  of  the  causes  of  the  crime  and  dependency 
with  which  we  are  all  so  familiar." 

In  a  recent  paper  on  housing  conditions  in 
Los  Angeles,  a  member  of  the  Housing  Com- 
mission reported  the  terrible  conditions  exist- 
ing at  that  time  on  Utah  Street,  where  over 
400  Mexicans  lived  in  shacks  crowded  in  one 
small  block.  Many  of  these  he  reported  as 
keeping  their  tiny  houses  clean  and  their  chil- 
dren neatly  clad,  and  trying  their  best  to  make 
a  home.  Were  it  not  for  causes  beyond  their 
control,  they  would  have  a  home  in  pleasant 


THE  OTHER  FELLOW  245 

surroundings.  These  particular  people  were 
imported  as  cheap  labor  from  Mexico.  They 
do  not  receive  a  living  wage,  and  so  are  forced 
to  live  in  this  congested  manner,  productive  of 
sickness  and  crime.  Who  pays  in  the  end 
when  less  than  a  living  wage  is  given  by  the 
corporation?  First  the  laborer  and  his  family 
by  the  loss  of  physical  and  moral  strength; 
second,  the  public  who  must  through  taxes 
meet  the  cost  of  extra  jails  for  those  made 
criminals  by  this  congestion,  and  who  must 
provide  for  the  care  of  the  sick  in  the  public 
hospitals,  and  possibly  bear  the  expense  of 
fighting  the  contagion  which  may  spread  from 
this  street  throughout  the  city.  Some  one 
must  pay  the  bills.  Who  pays  the  bills  when 
the  laborer  is  maimed  for  life?  Not  the  em- 
ployer, but  the  public.  It  is  easy  to  see  that 
to  help  the  other  fellow  means  more  than  a 
daily  dole.  Modern  philanthropy  must  go  to 
the  source  whence  dependency  originates,  and 
work  there  with  causes.  Judge  Lindsey  is 
quoted  as  saying :  "The  Juvenile  Court  stands 
second;  it  handles  results:  the  Juvenile  Asso- 
ciation first;  it  removes  causes.  The  sugges- 
tion of  a  state  department  for  the  elimination 
of  crime  is  worthy  of  serious  attention,  if 
through  that  the  causes  of  crime  may  be 
studied  and  faithfully  dealt  with." 

The  ablest  lawyers  are  retained  in  the  serv- 
ice of  vested  interests,  whose  duty  it  is  to  see 
that  not  one  dollar  is  lost  to  employers  by  the 


246  THE  BETTER  CITY 

passage  and  enforcement  of  laws  for  the  safety 
and  health  of  the  common  people.  Thus  the 
passage  of  the  pure  food  laws  was  delayed 
many  years;  thousands  of  unsanitary  tene- 
ments were  left  untouched  and  laws  against 
the  sale  of  liquor  and  of  cigarettes  to  minors 
are  made  dead  letters.  Is  it  not  then  a  matter 
of  necessity  that  the  ablest  experts  be  em- 
ployed by  the  people  to  study  conditions  that 
make  for  these  evils;  suggest  better  laws  and 
attend  to  their  enforcement;  in  other  words, 
stand  between  the  people  and  the  employers' 
greed  for  gold;  be  the  educators  of  the  new 
generation  of  philanthropists;  be  the  forerun- 
ners of  the  day  when  the  word  "People"  will 
be  written  in  larger  letters  than  the  word 
"King"  or  "Priest"  or  "Captain  of  Industry." 
By  way  of  summary,  let  it  be  noted  that 
the  Associated  Charities  has  more  to  do  than 
to  tabulate  cases;  the  Merchants'  and  Manu- 
facturers' Association  must  go  deeper  than  the 
ferreting  out  of  frauds;  the  philanthropic  so- 
cieties must  do  more  than  care  for  the  prod- 
ucts of  an  evil  system;  the  Church  must  learn 
that  the  power  of  religion  has  only  been  half 
applied.  All  these  organizations  must  stand 
for  the  new  Civic  Spirit.  They  must  busy 
themselves  in  studying  the  tenement  problem ; 
in  calling  the  attention  of  public  authorities  to 
homes  that  are  unfit;  in  studying  the  best 
methods  of  sanitation;  in  doing  their  part 
toward  the  destruction  of  the  great  white 


THE   OTHER  FELLOW  247 

plague,  tuberculosis.  "Sanitation  is  a  social 
problem;  public  health  is  a  social  problem.  If 
there  be  a  disease  in  the  slum  and  a  breeze 
sweeps  over  the  city,  disease  is  everywhere. 
After  that  there  are  no  slums  and  there  are  no 
safe  quarters,  for  no  city  is  better,  either  mor- 
ally or  physically,  than  its  worst  part."  If  no 
state  can  exist  half  slave  and  half  free,  it  may 
more  truly  be  said  that  no  city  can  live  half 
good  and  half  bad.  Left  to  itself,  the  slum 
will  breed  the  criminal,  who  will  rob  or  burn 
the  mansion  in  the  finer  district.  One  garment 
made  in  a  sweat  shop  may  contaminate  with 
disease  a  healthy  family  in  the  beautiful  sub- 
urban home.  The  uneducated  foreigner,  the 
prey  of  the  politician,  may  help  to  install  vici- 
ous men  in  office  who  will  destroy  the  fair 
name  of  a  city  and  set  back  progress  for  many 
years.  -  Experience  dearly  bought  is  teaching 
the  truth  of  the  words  that  "no  man  liveth  to 
himself  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself."  Let  us 
ask  what  shall  be  our  attitude  toward  the  other 
fellow.  The  Master  of  men  answered  it  by 
saying,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self." Not  more,  not  less.  That  which  you 
desire  for  yourself  or  family  you  must  wish  for 
every  man — money,  friends,  home,  education, 
position,  pleasant  surroundings,  a  spiritual  re- 
ligion, health,  happiness.  Loving  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself  surely  means  that  you  are  to  desire 
for  him,  and  will  help  him  to  obtain  all  these 
things,  which  to  you  make  life  worth  living. 


248 


THE  BETTER  CITY 


. 


The  coming  man  will  be  the  man  whose 
chief  thought  will  be  the  upbuilding  of  the  so- 
cial kingdom  ;  "he  will  move  in  the  power  of 
the  social  passion,"  and  that  is  an  inward  pro- 
pelling power,  never  satisfied  with  present  at- 
tainment, but  seeking  for  a  closer  touch  with 
the  divine  power  and  the  application  of  that 
power  to  other  needs.  Ever  in  the  pursuit  of 
the  common  good,  he  will  recognize  wealth  as 
a  common  inheritance  and  living  the  life  of 
loving  service  will  be  to  him  like  partaking 
alrthe  holy  sacrament. 

The  City  of  the  Angels  is  as  yet  far  away 
from  the  ideal  city.  The  dollar  still  rules.  Ma- 
terial  things  are  still  more  sought  for  than 
spiritual.  Low  political  ideals  still  hold  sway. 
Nevertheless,  the  brighter  day  is  dawning. 
Investigation  has  brought  forth  protest  and  a 
few  noble  souls  are  leading  on  in  the  campaign 
for  purity,  temperance,  righteousness  and  jus- 
tice. There  is  a  growing  multitude  who  are 
determined  that  there  shall  be  here  not  only  a 
but  a  Better  City. 


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